The Department of National Defence is actively considering whether to retire some older ships, planes and other items of equipment that have become difficult and costly to maintain — including the aircraft belonging to the iconic Snowbird demonstration squadron.
The F18 is also an antique, it made its first flight in 1978.
On a personal note I hope they stick with something relatively quiet. I got to watch weeks of the Snowbirds practicing this spring and while they are noisy, all 10 of them in the air together are quieter than 1 F18.
I’m not sure if you’re exercising hyperbole to emphasize your point, so I’ll take you at face value. The model is still in service as a fourth generation fighter. Particular jets may be antiques. Given that Canada waited a few years to procure them, I doubt any of the CF-18’s are as old as the original F-18’s.
You can call it an antique when it’s out of service and we’re on to 6th gen. Until then, it’s a perfectly reasonable assumption that a fleet us made up of current and next-gen models, or previous- and current-gen models if you’re miserly.