On January 23, 1997 the Swiss Air Force received the first of 34 F/A-18 Hornet fighters.  The Hornet constitute the key-element of the Swiss Air Force untill today. In October 2008 the milestone of 50,000 flight hours has been reached with the type, mainly employed for Air Police task, both in the normal daily work and on the occasion of events as "World Economic Forum" (WEF) or "EURO 08".

After an accident occurred in April 1988, when a Hornet crashed during an air-to-air combat training, 26 single seat F/A-18C and 7 twin seat F/A-18D are currently available in the fleet. Three Fliegerstaffels (squadrons) fly the F/A-18.  During normal operations Staffel 17 and 18 operate out of Payerne, while Staffel 11 operate the Hornet from Meiringen.

For training the Hornets regularly deploy to Norway for night flying and low level training as the possibilities are limited in the restricted Swiss airspace. Next to that the Hornets regularly participate in Partnership for Peace exercises. Also at the ELITE exercises they are well known guests. Due to the increased noiselevel that the Hornets produce the jets deploy also to Sion, Meiringen and abroad to reduce local noise levels.

With the Hornet it was possible for the first time to ensure the Air Police task under all weather conditions around for 24 hours, 7 days a week. Air Defense belongs to the main competence of the Swiss Armed Forces.  The Air Force also trains for a minimum level of know-how to be available in air-to-ground operations (in the case of an armed conflict).

On the contrary, the Air Police task is carried out on a daily bases. On a specific order, the F/A-18 can be retracted from ongoing exercises and be employed for the identification, or to intercept airplanes not announced via radio, that have technical failure or have violated eventual limits of air space. 

With the changed world since September 11 2001 the F/A-18 of the Air Force is employed in missions that were not flown since the 2^nd World War. As example during the World Economic Forum in 2003 the  Swiss Air Force flew operational with "live" armament for the first time since 1945. Since then this operations were also employed on the occasion of G-8 summit in Evian and "EURO 08".

Currently the F/A-18 fleet is in modernization phase to remain competitive compared to the fighters of other Air Forces. The modernization include new avionics, new AIM-9X sidewinder air-to-air missiles and Link 16 that allows the exchange of digital data during flight.