President-elect Trump's notion that an F/A-18 Super Hornet could do the same job as an F-35 is "a little bit apples and oranges," Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said Friday.
Before Christmas, Trump said he was considering the Boeing Super Hornet over the Lockheed Martin F-35 due to "the tremendous cost and cost overruns."
"I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet!," he wrote.
But James said the Super Hornet, which is used only by the Navy, would not be a good fit for the requirements filled by the F-35, which has variants for the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps. The first Super Hornets began flying in the early 2000s.