WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — General Electric has received a more than two thirds of a billion dollar US Navy contract for 17 engine components of F/A-18 Super-Hornet and EA 18G Growler aircraft, the US Department of Defense announced.
"General Electric [of] Lynn, Massachusetts is being awarded a $670.7 million… contract for repair, replacement and program support of 17 F414 engine components of F/A-18 E, F, and EA 18G aircrafts," the announcement stated on Friday.
Defense Secretary James Mattis ordered a comparison of the hugely expensive and controversial Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter and the F/A-18 not long after President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January.
Around the same time, Boeing, the manufacturer of the F/A-18, circulated a document suggesting that the Navy had a "significant capability gaps against emerging threats" with the F-35, according to the Navy Times, and that updating the F/A-18 was more efficient that buying new F-35 jets.
