Fight over F-35 about security — and money

There’s more at stake than national security in the debate over the F-35 fifighter jet. It’s called money.

Since 2009, Lockheed Martin and some 1,200 partners — including Pratt & Whitney — have delivered more than 200 of the fifighter jets powered by Pratt’s F135 engines built in the company’s West Palm Beach and Connecticut plants.

Last year, the U.S. Air Force declared the jets combat-ready, as have now the Marines. The Netherlands, Australia, Israel, and Italy have also acquired, built or ordered the planes.

Good for American security. Good for American business.

In Florida, the F-35 generates 14,700 jobs and $3 billion worth of economic gain. That includes the Pratt workforce in West Palm Beach that assembles the 40,000-pounds-ofthrust F135 engines.

It was all good until President Donald Trump fifired a missile of a tweet at the aircraft: “The F-35 program and cost is out of control. Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th.”

The Twitter missive cost Lockheed a small fortune in stock losses that day. More heartburn was to come when Trump suggested Lockheed’s military- industrial complex rival, Boeing, “price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet.”

Lockheed and Pratt offifficials were mum about the president’s, um, alternative facts on the aircraft’s cost during a get-to-know-the-F-35 event on Wednesday.

Instead, they talked up the F-35 as a national security must-have and an economic boost for communities nationwide, such as Palm Beach County, where Pratt employs 1,000 people.

They stressed the F-35 aircraft has the Air Force’s and Marines’ stamp of approval. And that it raises America’s air defenses far above what potential enemies possess.

Why? Partly because it’s super “stealthy,” with ordnance undetectable by radar. “It’s designed to shoot the enemy before the enemy sees it,” said Pratt’s Dave Lawrence, adding the F-35’s “sensor fusion” cockpit allows pilots to make decisions faster.

And White House skepticism? Lockheed offifficials insisted they’ve reduced the price tag. Pratt’s James Maser, vice president of the F135 military engine program, said they’ve cut the cost of each engine by 50 percent since 2009.

He and others insisted the public will get a 21st-century warplane for the cost of the best 20th-century warplane.

I’m sold on sending an F-35 to sensor-fusion IS jihadists. But it’s the commander in chief who has to be convinced the F-35’s price tag is genuine, nonfake news.