This Man Owns The World’s Most Advanced Private Air Force After Buying 46 F/A-18 Hornets

[DP]

For the last 30+ years, Don Kirlin has been flying for the airlines, working on real estate deals, setting up the world's biggest skydiving meets, and building a private air force the likes of which even he has a hard time believing is possible. In March 2020, The War Zone was among the first to report that his company would be purchasing multiple squadrons worth of surplus Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) F/A-18 Hornets to be used in the contractor adversary air support role here in the United States. In that role, they would primarily fly against U.S. military fighter pilots, replicating aerial threats from potential enemy nations. So basically, they are bad guys for hire, but strictly for training and development work.

This is just a small sample of what this guy has. An interesting read.

https://getpocket.com/explore/item/this-...18-hornets

[Lux Interior]

He is building a fighting force of extra-ordinary magnitude.

[Will Collier]

Lux Interior wrote:
He is building a fighting force of extra-ordinary magnitude.

You have my gwatitude.

[cbelt3]

Um... Dude has ATF permission for cannons and ammo on the aircraft ? hoo.... Kind of surprised he hasn't bought a few Aardvarks or Lancers..

[Will Collier]

I'm guessing leaving the cannons in is a weight and balance thing. The F/A-18 is fly by wire, and taking out that much off-center mass would probably throw off the FLCS algorithms. I'd be mildly amazed if any of them were actually loaded with gun ammo ever again.

The author of that piece is either pretty knowledgeable or very well-advised. Very good point about the APG-65; an old boss of mine who was an expert in EW used to regularly refer to it as a "Mickey Mouse radar" back during my flight test days.

[Speedy]

Ukraine…

[ztirffritz]

I believe his private air force is larger than Ukraine's currently.

[Will Collier]

Speedy wrote:
Ukraine…

Not enough time. It's not just the jets: it's the armaments and the spare parts and the maintenance long tail to keep them flying. While there are very likely pilots in UKR who could pick up the basic flight and avionics systems quickly, the rest would take months if not years to get in place. That's why there's been a focus on scooping up old Soviet gear in the former Warsaw Pact states to transfer there instead of direct transfers of Western systems: the commonality of parts and maintenance experience.

[Carnos Jax]

He’s pretty much doing this stuff (I took a quasi-deep dive into the guy after reading the article yesterday) with the blessing of the US government and all necessary approvals. I do believe he has some planes that are capable of firing live ammo as well.

I’ve always fantasized about owning my own F-16 or F 18 to go tooling around in (obviously I’d have to have all the sensitive stuff removed, but even then there are just some components like the engine that are still using classified technology, so probably will remain a pipe dream).

[jdc]

Carnos Jax wrote:
I’ve always fantasized about owning my own F-16 or F 18 to go tooling around in...

T-38 for me. purty. and figure maintaining it would be far far less $$ than anything more modern. gas, parts, etc. still has plenty of capabilities.

Speedy wrote:
Ukraine…

Doesnt know how to fly them even if they were dropped off for free.