Top Navy leader: F-35 ‘on a completely different level’ from the Super Hornet

Richardson said the Lockheed Martin F-35 is a fifth-generation fighter jet, while the Boeing Super Hornet is a fourth-generation platform. The difference represents a large jump in capability.

“If you just think about the aircraft in terms of capability … [the F-35] is on a completely different level from the Super Hornet,” Richardson said at a DBrief Live event.

While he acknowledged there are updates and improvements that can be made to the Super Hornet to make it closer to a four-and-a-half generation plane, the F-35 is crucial to the Navy’s missions.

“We need the F-35,” he said.

At the same time, the admiral stressed that a “healthy cadre” of Super Hornets will continue to be an integral part of the Navy’s air fleet and will operate alongside the F-35s as they come online.

Trump has repeatedly slammed the F-35 since the election and has promised to cut costs of the program, which is the most expensive procurement effort ever undertaken by the Pentagon. Late last year, he announced on Twitter that he had asked Boeing to price out a version of the Super Hornet that is “comparable” to the F-35.

The Air Force, which is procuring its own version of the F-35, said comparing the two planes is “apples and oranges.”

The tri-service F-35 includes a conventional takeoff version for the Air Force, a version for the Navy that can be catapulted off an aircraft carrier, and a Marine version that can take off and land vertically. The Navy is the only service that flies the Super Hornet.

The Super Hornet has been flying since the early 2000s and is nearing the end of its production line. The F-35 has been deemed fit for flight in the Air Force and Marine Corps, and that status is expected next for the Navy.

Last week, the first squadron of U.S. Marine F-35s arrived at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, to begin operations.