New information tabled in the House of Commons gives some insight into the number of hours on the airframes of the RCAF’s CF-18s.
The document lists 77 CF-18s in service at Cold Lake, Alberta and Bagotville, Que.
The “to be determined” columns are for “hours at retirement” and the date of retirement.
The information was current as of April 22.
It has been reported that the maximum flying hours for a F-18 is around 8,000 hours.
Four Canadian jets have more than 7,000 hours on their airframes, according to the chart provided. Forty-six have more than 6,000 hours.
The rest are in 5,000 to 5,900 range. One has just under 4,000 hours.
At this point the RCAF is still looking at a life extension to keep the aircraft flying until 2025. Sources tell Defence Watch the life extension is to proceed but it is unclear at this point how a proposed purchase of Super Hornets might affect that program.
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