Well, as far as range goes hornet vs. viper, the F-16 of all variants will always beat out the F/A-18A/B/C/D. This is because for some reason or another the amount of fuel the basic hornet carries internally was never increased from that of the demonstrator, which typically carries much less gas than the production model. Oops. Thats why you almost always see Hornets carrying at least two external gas tanks, and even then the Hornet has nottoriously short range. The Super Hornet is a whole new ball game, in fact it is really a whole new airplane and the gas issue has more or less been fixed, although it is rare to see a Super Hornet sans external tanks either so the increase in range might not be all it was cracked up to be.
