F-35 - Pressure is upon LM - AIN

January 20, 2017

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New Pressure on Lockheed Martin To Reduce F-35 Unit Cost The nature and extent of future F-35 fighter procurement is one of the many future policy unknowns in the U.S., as the new administration takes over today. Two of incoming President Trump’s many tweets have criticized the program on cost grounds, evoking a pained response from manufacturer Lockheed Martin (LM). Trump has also suggested that the U.S. Navy should buy more F/A-18 Super Hornets from Boeing instead. But that is already happening, thanks to continuing Congressional plus-up additions to the U.S. defense procurement budget. Responding to Trump’s opinion that “the F-35 program and cost is out of control,” Jeff Babione, LM’s executive vice president and general manager for the F-35 program, said that the company had invested “hundreds of millions of dollars to reduce the price of the plane by more than 60 percent.” He repeated the company’s goal of eventually reducing the unit cost to $85 million. LM chief executive officer Marillyn Hewson told Trump last week that “we are close to a deal on the tenth batch of F-35s that will bring the cost down significantly.”  Read More