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The F-18 Hornet is the Finnish Air Force variant of the Boeing IDS F/A-18 Hornet multi-role attack and fighter aircraft. It lacks certain avionics, target acquisition and weapon control features, limiting its capability to engage surface targets.
The decision to purchase the aircraft (64 in total, with 7 two-seat F-18D models and 57 single-seated F-18C models) was made in 1992, soon after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. The original plan was to buy about 40 western fighters and about 20 soviet fighters due political reasons,
but the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union removed the political reason to buy also soviet aircraft, and the plan changed to 60 single-seat + 7 dual set fighters of same type, and F-18 won the contest. Due F-18's high price, the number of fighters to be purchased was decreased by three, to 57+7.
A key goal in the Finnish foreign policy of that era was to take no action that might be interpreted by the Soviets as a security threat; a weapons purchase of this magnitude certainly applied. Buying only NATO-compatible, American fighter jets was not possible for Finland before the U.S.S.R.'s collapse.
The primary reason for the lack of ground attack features in the aircraft is the semantic meaning of the word "attack". For example, Finland has Defence Forces, not an army -- even the possibility of Finland ever attacking its neighbors is denied on all levels. This made the policy decision to purchase attack aircraft impossible in the nineties aftermath of finlandization, leading to factory reconfiguration of the F/A-18 to the F-18 variant.
It is widely believed that the removed features can be reinstalled with comparative ease if a regional conflict or a similar need so dictates.
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