Air USA (Don Kirlin, president), along with a bunch of other companies were selected as contractors for the U.S. Air Force to provide "Red Air" (adversary training) services. This is not new; the Air Force uses private companies for training as the cost savings are immense:

• Reduced flight hours and maintenance on fleet aircraft.

• Instructors do not need to be pulled from schedules.

• Fleet aircraft do not need to be hard scheduled.

• Cost per flight hour is much lower for common aggressor platforms (A-4, L-39, F1M, and now these legacy F-18s) than the aircraft the Air Force is training in.

• Private companies can more easily maintain and source parts for aircraft the military cannot (Migs, for instance).

This particular sale was the remainder of the RAAF's retired F-18 fleet, which Canada started buying in early 2019. These are _not_ Super Hornets.

Some of these companies have been around for decades. Some competitors:

• ATAC

• Top Air

• Draken