F-35 cost to be ‘significantly’ lower

Lockheed Martin executive discusses fighter program with Trump, who has pushed for savings.

A Lockheed Martin executive discusses fighter program with Trump, who has pushed for savings.

Emerging from a meeting with President-elect Donald Trump at Trump Tower in New York on Friday, Lockheed Martin Chief Executive Marillyn Hewson told reporters Friday the Bethesda-based defense giant is close to a new contract deal that would cut the cost of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program and also create jobs.

“We had the opportunity to talk to [President-elect Trump] about the F-35 program and I certainly share his views that we need to get the best capability to our men and women in uniform and we have to get it at the lowest possible price,” Hewson said. “So I’m glad I had the opportunity to tell him that we are close to a deal that will bring the cost down significantly from the previous lot of aircraft to the next lot of aircraft and moreover it’s going to bring a lot of jobs to the United States.”

She went on to say that the company would create 1,800 new jobs related to the program in Fort Worth, Texas, as part of the new contract deal. Lockheed Martin estimates the program accounts for 38,900 jobs in Texas, and the plane’s supply chain touches 45 states. Lockheed shares climbed nearly 1 percent on the news.

“I also had the opportunity to give him some ideas on things we think we can do to continue to drive the cost down on the F-35 program so it was a great meeting,” Hewson said.

In recent months, the president-elect has not been shy about taking to social media to criticize or heap praise on individual companies and military programs. A Dec. 6 tweet bashed Chicago-based Boeing for what he referred to as the “out of control” cost of the Air Force One presidential airplane. Weeks later he turned in Boeing’s favor at the expense of Lockheed, tweeting that he had asked the company to “price out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet” because of the F-35’s high costs.

He also briefly brought up the F-35 in a Wednesday press conference intended to clarify his business conflicts, saying he would “do some big things” with the program and find a way to both trim costs and improve the plane itself.

Voices on both sides of the political aisle have criticized the F-35 program’s cost long before Trump took up the issue. Each plane costs more than $100 million, though Lockheed expects the price to fall as the program matures.