F/A-18

The McDonnell Douglas (now Boeing ) F/A-18 Hornet is a supersonic, all-weather carrier-capable multirole fighter jet, designed to attack air and ground targets. The F/A-18 was derived from the YF-17 in the 1970s for use by the United States Navy and Marine Corps. The Hornet is also used by the air forces of several other nations. It has been the aerial demonstration aircraft for the U.S. Navy's Flight Demonstration Squadron, the Blue Angels, since 1986.

The fighter's primary missions are fighter escort, fleet air defense, SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses) , air interdiction, close air support and Aerial reconnaissance. Its versatility and reliability have proven it to be a valuable carrier asset, though it has been criticized for its lack of range and payload compared to its earlier contemporaries, such as the F-14A Tomcat in the fighter and strike fighter role, and the A-6 Intruder and A-7 Corsair II in the attack role.

Battlefield 2
The F/A-18A Hornet appears in Battlefield 2 as one of the four USMC Fixed-wing aircraft in the game, along with the F-35B, F-15E Strike Eagle and A-10 Thunderbolt II.

Compared to the F-35B
The two aircraft are similar as they have the same armament and belong to the same faction. The F-35 does however, have VTOL/STOL capabilities making it more versatile than the F/A-18. This gives the F/A-18 slightly worse combat statistics than the F-35B.

Appearances

 * Daqing Oilfields
 * FuShe Pass
 * Highway Tampa
 * Kubra Dam
 * Operation Clean Sweep
 * Zatar Wetlands

Battlefield: Bad Company 2
Two F/A-18C Hornets appear in Battlefield: Bad Company 2 acting as air support in the missions Cold War and High Value Target. One also crashes in the cutscene after a US defeat on Valparaiso. Two F/A-18s can be seen bombing near the middle of the map at the beginning of a match on Panama Canal, alongside radio chatter. These bombs cannot harm the player, even if one makes it to the target zone before the jets arrive. Two more Hornets also appear bombing the RU spawn after a US victory on Panama Canal, as well as another two bombing base Charlie after a US victory on Laguna Alta. Two more can also be seen flying past the map on Isla Innocentes, after the US destroys the first two M-COMs. The F/A-18 is never usable by the player.

Battlefield 3
The F/A-18 Super Hornets (both E and F variants) appear in Battefield 3 singleplayer and multiplayer.

Singleplayer
The F/A-18F Super Hornet is a two-seater variant of the F/A-18. It appears in the singleplayer mission Going Hunting, with Jennifer Hawkins and her pilot operating as callsign "Shark 4-6" They engage IRIAF jets over Iranian skies and destroy targets at Mehrabad International Airport. It can utilise the AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile, the M61 Vulcan 20mm gatling gun, IR Countermeasures (Flares), and the AGM-88 HARM Anti-Radar missile, as well as a laser designator to paint targets for GBUs and A-10 Strikes.

Multiplayer
The F/A-18E Super Hornet is a single-seat variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet family. The F/A-18E Super Hornet appears in Battlefield 3 as the US main fighter jet. It is equivalent to the Su-35BM Flanker-E.

Being a multirole fighter the F/A-18E Super Hornet has a 20mm gun and optional Air-to-ground Rocket/Missiles or Heat seeking Missiles for air to air purposes.

First Slot: First slot comes with Stealth, Proximity Scan, Belt Speed, Air Radar, Maintenance and Beam Scanning.

Stealth can reduce the range and increase lock on time for Heatseeking missiles. While Proximity Scan is useless. Maintenance is usually good for new players alonside Stealth. Air Radar allows you to see other enemy aircraft (including choppers and the Gunship), but can be hindered by ECM Jammers and Below Radar. Beam Scanning is useful for quick lock ons for AGMs and Heat seekers.

Second Slot is Secondary Weapons. You can choose from Air-to-Air or Air-to-Ground Missiles or unguided rocket pods.

Heatseekers are the first secondary weapon the player will get and in cases be the most common thing to use by new players. A expert pilot can lose them by getting out of range, get out of the lock on circle or use Below Radar once unlocked. Rocket Pods give the player fourteen Rockets it fuction like the Attack Choppers rockets and can do some heavy damage to a tank, but has a long reload and is weak against infantry and Guided Missiles gives the players a missile that can be guided towards Vehicles (Occupied or unoccupied) and Enemy equipments (MAVs, Mortars, EOD Robots and Spawn Beacons), its Camera can also be used to strafe infanrty furthering its effectiveness.

Third Slot is the Gadget slot.

The first gadget that is automatically unlocked is IR Flares that gets rid of any Heatseeking guided missiles. The second is ECM Jammer, it eliminates the lock on for a brief period and jams Air Radar for the same time period and can be used against people who rely heavily on Air Radar. The final unlock is Extinguisher, which is designed to bring your disabled vehicle back to just above the disabled mark and hopefully allow you to avoid being blown up.

In an Aerial Dogfight it will all depend on who can accelerate quicker and who has the suprise. De-accelerating will allow the player to turn quicker, but reduces air speed. If you find a player on your tail the first option is to outrun them.

Versus Choppers
Against choppers a tactic to slow down behind a moving chopper and use the guns to take him out, Transports are the same story but you might have to take an other pass to completly disable it (beware the miniguns). Scout Choppers can be taken down very simple due to their light armour.

Versus the Gunship
In Armored Kill expansion pack, The Gunship haves an extremly high damage threshold and wont be taken down so easy. Due to having a high tolerance to damage and having two AA guns on top of it, it can prove to be a challenge to take it down. Utilizing a mixture of Rocket pods and guns its possible to destroy the gunship in one pass or two. Beware enemy jets or Mobile AA if fighting the gunship.

Generally, there are two opposite tactics: attack bottom-to-top and attack top-to-bottom.


 * When using the first, remember, that gunners in Gunship can easily spot you. This means, you will be accompanied with fire from AA guns when you finish your bottom-to-top attack. But you also can "cancel" the attack by going under the available shooting range and  not expose yourself to gunfire.

An alternative, superior, method to taking out gunships requires you to be free of any persuers, begin by approaching the gunship within its' circle and fire across the cannons, turning to face its' nose as you pass, this usually blocks out your approaching angle with the wing tip or the need to turn the cannons, with a volley of shots across its' side, drop down beneath it and initiate afterburners to position yourself infront and beneath, then hold back on the brake and loop back onto yourself, pulling up and turning as much as possible. This usually brings you right back onto the tail of the gunship, release the brakes and fire another volley at the top of the gunship before ducking back below and looping once more to get onto its' tail. This helps to ensure that a gunship can be taken down in three to five strafes in a loop, and by the time the anti-air turrets on top of the gunship have re-positioned to you firing on them from behind you can have already fired off a full burst of rounds and gotten under the gunship, out of the way and ready for another strafe, heckling the poor sods inside.
 * Contrary, when performing top-to-bottom attack, you can remain undetected until start firing, because gunners usually look on the ground. However, this attack cannot be canceled, or you will be killed with AA guns.

Appearences
The F/A-18E appears only on Conquest
 * Base Game
 * Caspian Border
 * Noshahr Canals (PC only)
 * Kharg Island
 * Operation Firestorm
 * Armored Kill
 * Bandar Desert
 * Alborz Mountains
 * Death Valley

Trivia

 * The F/A-18 in Battlelog is an F/A-18A Hornet from Battlefield 2.