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.
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.