my submission...
Being an actual maintainer for these bad boys, its natural for me to research on its origins..... The F/A-18A may have been introduced a tad bit late into the Cold War (early 1983) the origins of this aircraft dates to the early 60s when the Air Force started the Lightweight Fighter Program and results didn't start coming into play until 1974 when General Dynamics produced the YF-16 and Northrop created the YF-17 to which, when the Air Force dropped the YF-17 for what was to eventually become the F-16, The Department of the Navy decided that they needed a lightweight fighter attack aircraft to compliment the F-14. The end result wasn't shown until 1978 with the rollout of the F/A-18A Hornet and was not put into service until 1983. Of course, I could have just said that the Cold War started at the end of WWII (but actually it predates to the 1916 -1917 area.) and ended in 91' hence making the F/A-18 a product of the Cold War but, I figure a little history lesson would be more beneficial.. :P


