If you had bothered to read the blog post you just posted would have lead you to the conclusion the pilot came to that the avionics , and the rest of the aircraft , are totally different . It bears only a passing resemblance to the F 18 CD . To put a number to it , the two aircraft originally had about % 20 part commonality , a number that has dropped as Boeing has progressively improved the manufacturing process . These days the commonality is in shit like the bearings in the landing gear and bolts stuff that saves nobody any time or money in a conversion . A pilot converting from a CD will not have any meaningful leg up on any pilot transitioning from another aircraft . Any pilot will transition to the F 35 faster and easier because its just that much better at working the boxes for you . source , a guy who helped design some of the avionics that ended up in the F 18 G . I ' ve been elbow deep in a Rhino . Have you ?