“(The F-16 Fighting Falcon and the F-18 Hornet were among the first aircraft to use composites in a number of critical components to keep weight down.)”
No they weren’t, not even close. Remember Aircraft plywood is a composite and has been used as a structural component in many airframes such as the Dehavilland Mosquito.
I should have made myself clear: the F-16 and F-18 were among the first military planes to use a lot of non-ferrous (and I don’t mean wood!) composite materials such as boron composites and carbon-fiber composites for a number of structural components.