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.
“It’s a fine aircraft, it’s a different aircraft, it does not fulfill the same requirements,” she said. “It’s a little bit apples and oranges and I have to believe before any final decision would be made with respect to a final shift, the chief requirements officer would be consulted.”
It’s part of what James called Trump’s “unusual” focus on expensive defense acquisition programs. But it just shows his emphasis on saving taxpayer dollars, a focus she’s also had during her three years as the service’s top civilian, she said.
Beyond criticizing the cost of the F-35, Trump has also gone after the Air Force One replacement program, and its estimated $4 billion total program cost. He’s also met with the CEOs of Lockheed Martin and Boeing and secured promises from both that they will work to minimize costs of these programs.
Asked specifically about Trump’s criticism of the F-35, James said that it shows Trump’s focus on taxpayer dollars and efficiencies and “that’s an important focus.”
“It’s an unusual approach, it’s an approach I’m not sure there is another example of it that I can think of at least of doing a deep dive at this point into a program like this, but I think the signal is cost controls matter, efficiencies matter,” she said at an Air Force Association breakfast event in Arlington.
James said that, while Trump is well within his rights to terminate or change the F-35 program as commander in chief, she feels confident that Trump would seek the input of the Air Force chief of staff before making any changes, and that he would explain to Trump that the F-35 capabilities are “crucial” to the Air Force.
“It’s performing magnificently, it’s a cut above anything the pilots have ever seen before and we need it and we want it in the inventory,” she said.
