January 1, 2009:
The U.S. Navy has been put
in charge of a software and hardware upgrade for 2,000 F-18 fighters (all
models) used by the United States, Canada, Australia, Spain, Kuwait,
Switzerland, Finland and Malaysia. These upgrades will cost about $400,000 per
aircraft, and are mainly concerned with software, communications and radar
tweaks. It will take five years to complete work on all the aircraft.