A319 first officer reported an airborne conflict with an F-18 on descent into rno.

Attributes
ACN	1470655
Time
Date	201708
Local Time Of Day	0601-1200
Place
Locale Reference	RNO.Airport
State Reference	NV
Environment
Flight Conditions	VMC
Light	Daylight
Aircraft 1
Make Model Name	A319
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 121
Flight Phase	Descent
Flight Plan	IFR
Aircraft 2
Make Model Name	F/A 18 Hornet/Super Hornet
Operating Under FAR Part	Part 91
Flight Phase	Climb
Person 1
Function	First Officer
Qualification	Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP)
Events
Anomaly	ATC Issue All Types Conflict Airborne Conflict

Narrative:

We were cleared direct to fmg VOR. We were issued a descent to 16;000 and I believe we were somewhere around FL210-FL220 when we received a call from center advising us that we had F18 traffic at one o'clock. Seconds later we received a TA that showed the F18 5000 ft below us and climbing. It immediately turned into a climbing RA which we complied with and advised ATC. During this whole ordeal I was trying to divide my time inside and outside the cockpit to locate the traffic. There were a few transmissions to both the F18 and us from the controller. At one point I believe he mistakenly told us to descend and then corrected himself. When I got a visual on the F18 he was climbing rapidly and rolling and then seemed to level off. I believe [ATC] told him to descend to FL190. He then passed behind us. We recovered from the RA and continued our descent into rno.

Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: A319 First Officer reported an airborne conflict with an F-18 on descent into RNO.

Narrative: We were cleared direct to FMG VOR. We were issued a descent to 16;000 and I believe we were somewhere around FL210-FL220 when we received a call from Center advising us that we had F18 traffic at one o'clock. Seconds later we received a TA that showed the F18 5000 ft below us and climbing. It immediately turned into a climbing RA which we complied with and advised ATC. During this whole ordeal I was trying to divide my time inside and outside the cockpit to locate the traffic. There were a few transmissions to both the F18 and us from the Controller. At one point I believe he mistakenly told us to descend and then corrected himself. When I got a visual on the F18 he was climbing rapidly and rolling and then seemed to level off. I believe [ATC] told him to descend to FL190. He then passed behind us. We recovered from the RA and continued our descent into RNO.

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.