President-elect Trump’s transition team said Thursday that part of a push to bring down the cost of the Pentagon’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program would include “quicker finalization of contracts” with Lockheed Martin, the program’s prime contractor.
The detail emerged during a conference call with reporters just one day after Trump met with Lockheed CEO Marillyn Hewson at his Palm Beach estate, Mar-a-Lago.
“In the meetings with Lockheed Martin’s CEO, Marillyn Hewson … they discussed the status of the F-35 program and establishing a quicker finalization of the contracting process and how we can continue to tighten up expenses on behalf of the taxpayer.”
Trump told reporters on the property Wednesday that his meeting with Hewson and then with Pentagon brass had focused on “trying to bring costs down — costs. Primarily the F-35, trying to get the costs down. A program that is very, very expensive.”
The president-elect said he viewed the meeting as the start of a negotiation over the jet production program, which has three variants and multiple foreign developmental partners and customers.
“We’re just beginning, it’s a dance,” Trump said. “It’s a little bit of a dance. But we’re going to get the costs down and we’re going to get it done beautifully.”
Protracted haggling over the price of F-35 lots has created problems between the Pentagon and Lockheed. In November, Defense News reported that extended negotiations over the ninth lot, and the Pentagon’s final decision to unilaterally decide to pay $6.1 billion for the 57 aircraft, created friction between the two.
Trump recently took to Twitter for a tirade against the F-35’s high price tag.
Trump also met Wednesday with the CEO of Boeing on the heels of another social media tirade directed at a defense contractor, this one over Boeing’s contract to develop the Air Force One replacement. Yesterday, CEO Dennis Muilenburg said the program will come under the $4 billion total that Trump cited.
