Does anyone know what the exterior differences are between and F/A-18A and an F/A-18C?

External differences between th A/B and C/D are minimal - a few excrescences here and there to house aerials and antennae. Initially at any rate, all changes between the two concerned the avionics and weapons fit. An improved high speed mission computer with a larger memory. A new weapon aslo was added on, the AGM-65F Maverick, which uses Imaging Infra-Red (IIR) homing, which has an automatic target acquisition facility, allowing first pass attacks on muliple targets.

The only visiable outboard changes have been the addition of antennas and a pair of strakes or " billboards" above the LERX. These help to break up vortices at angles of attack above 45 degrees. The strakes have been retrofitted to most 18's

An increase in the inlet size was needed to handle the bigger more powerful engine, F404-GE-402, making the first visible external changes.

Verious other avionics gadgets were hidden beneath the skin, and provision was made for the internal carriage of the ALQ-165 Advanced Self-Protection Jammer (ASPJ) which was cancelled in 1992.

The cockpit also saw changes, color MFD'S replaced two of the original monochrome ones, while the third was adapted to suit a Smiths Srs 2000 digitail moving map display. A new ACES zero/zero seat capable of returning to the verical following a low level ejection.

The next upgrade was the new APG-73 which replaced the APG-65.



I hope this helps you out at the least some...

Joe

The reason I was asking is because Twobobs has a set of 1/32 decals that I was thinking of using on one of my Academy F/A-18C kits. The decals are for an F/A-18A though.