Yes, several. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McDonnell_Douglas_F/A-18_Hornet#Unite...

hackuser · on March 21, 2015

Thanks. Doesn't that seems like a tiny sample, and aren't those far inferior foes?

acveilleux · on March 22, 2015

It's as well tested in combat as any of the other fighters still flying. Pending a US-Russia or US-China war, that's all that's ever going to happen.

philwelch · on March 22, 2015

Not like anyone's anxious to pull the P-51 or Spitfire out of mothballs, certainly.

While the Hornet doesn't have a huge combat record, it has a long flight record and a long record of carrier operations and has excelled at both with less maintenance burden than its predecessors.

engi_nerd · on March 22, 2015

I know many older maintainers who started out on the aircraft types that the F-18 replaced, and then worked on the F-18. They all say that the F-18 really was a game changer. Older aircraft had frustrating issues like panels from one aircraft not fitting onto another because those older aircraft were much more hand-made and manufactured to lower tolerances. F-18s leverage digital data buses much more, greatly reducing the messes of point-to-point wiring and patch panels that older aircraft types used, making the F-18 easier to maintain, modify, and expand.