A stunning discovery in Virginia: a relatively intact F/A-18 Hornet. Developed for the US Navy and Marine Corps before Doomsday, these strike fighters were originally meant to enter service by the summer of 1984. Virtually all known Hornets were believed to have obliterated by nuclear strikes onto the aircraft pictured above was discovered in a ruins of Naval Air Station Oceana in 2007.
Didn't some of the F/A-18s become part of the Commonwealth Armed Forces? Does not the ANZS Commonwealth have F-18s or was it the F-14 Tomcat? The sam goes for SH-60 Seahawks which was to see service in 1984 to replace the Sea Kings.
Personally I would assume that if a particular piece of equipment entered service in 1984 it wouldn’t be widely available on 9/26/83. Looking at the ANZC military page*(which I admit I hadn’t Looked at before) it refers to Australia’s F-18s as being reverse engineered copies built by a local manufacturer. So Let’s assume an original pre-Doomsday American built example is still an amazingly rare find.
*https://althistory.fandom.com/wiki/Commonwealth_Armed_Forces_(1983:_Doomsday)
I know but I don't know why.The image doesn't load.