The U.S. Navy Will Continue To Buy F/A-18 Super Hornets Over The F-35

F-18 and F-35. Defense Industry Daily

Dave Majumdar, National Interest: America's Lethal F-35 vs. F/A-18 Super Hornet: Who Wins?

The U.S. Navy is continuing to buy the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet at reduced rates while increasing its buy of Lockheed Martin F-35C Joint Strike Fighters. However, the sea service has always been somewhat lukewarm toward the stealthy single-engine fighter. Instead, the service has shown a strong preference for more Super Hornets, while either developing a stealthy long-range unmanned strike aircraft or skipping ahead to a next-generation F/A-XX. But the Office of the Secretary had other ideas.

Right now, the plan is for the Navy to keep buying some number of Super Hornets while buying F-35Cs to give the carrier air wing some stealth capability. Meanwhile, the Navy has started work on the next-generation F/A-XX—but the Unmanned Carrier Launched Surveillance and Strike program has been renamed the MQ-XX Stingray and de-scoped into a robotic aerial-refueler. But is that the best plan for the Navy?

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WNU Editor: The F-35's range limitations was always seen as a problem .... but the development of long range missiles to target U.S. carriers has made this problem even more bigger.