President-Elect Trump Continues Military Aircraft Cost-Cutting Crusade | Aero-News Network
Aero-News Network
RSS icon RSS feed
podcast icon MP3 podcast
Subscribe Aero-News e-mail Newsletter Subscribe

Airborne Unlimited -- Most Recent Daily Episodes

Episode Date

Airborne-Monday

Airborne-Tuesday

Airborne-Wednesday Airborne-Thursday

Airborne-Friday

Airborne On YouTube

Airborne-Unlimited-07.07.25

Airborne-NextGen-07.08.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.25.25

Airborne-AffordableFlyers-06.26.25

AirborneUnlimited-06.27.25

Sat, Dec 24, 2016

President-Elect Trump Continues Military Aircraft Cost-Cutting Crusade

Asks Boeing To Price Out F-18 Super Hornet 'Comparable' To Lockheed's JSF

President-elect Donald Trump isn't done trying to get the costs of some military programs down. After squawking about the price of a new Air Force One aircraft under development, and criticizing the costs of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, he's now gone back to Boeing with a request to "cost out" an F/A-18 Super Hornet that would be "comparable" to the new 5th generation fighter.

In typical Trump fashion, the President-elect was very public about his request ... posting it on Twitter. "Based on the tremendous cost and cost overruns of the Lockheed Martin F-35, I have asked Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18 Super Hornet!" he posted on Thursday afternoon.

Fox News reports that Lockheed Martin did not have any immediate comment about the Tweet. But Marcus Weisgerber, vice president of the Pentagon Press Association, tweeted that the two jets are not comparable. While the Super Hornet may cost less, it is not a 5th generation stealth aircraft. But, he said, Trump's very public move "really turns up the heat on @LockheedMartin entering contract negotiation for the next 100 F-35s. The price is really gonna fall now."

President-elect Trump met with the CEOs of both companies at his resort at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. Both CEOs said they discussed lowering project costs with the incoming President.

When Trump tweeted earlier this month that the F-35 was too expensive and he would cut "billions" in military purchases, Lockheed said it has made significant cost reductions in the F-35, and the aircraft is now expected to cost about $85 million (each) in 2019 and 2020.

The F-35 program represents about 20 percent of Lockheed's total 2015 revenue, according to the company.

(Images from file)

FMI: http://greatagain.gov

Advertisement

More News

NTSB Prelim: Piper PA-23

Pilot Also Reported That Due To A Fuel Leak, The Auxiliary Fuel Tanks Were Not Used On June 4, 2025, at 13:41 eastern daylight time, a Piper PA-23, N2109P, was substantially damage>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: One Man’s Vietnam

From 2023 (YouTube Edition): Reflections on War’s Collective Lessons and Cyclical Nature The exigencies of war ought be colorblind. Inane social-constructs the likes of racis>[...]

NTSB Final Report: Capella Aircraft Corp FW1C50

Pilot Reported That He Was Unfamiliar With The Single Seat Amateur-Built Airplane And His Intent Was To Perform High-Speed Taxi Testing Analysis: The pilot reported that he was unf>[...]

Classic Aero-TV: Timber Tiger Touts Curtiss Jenny Replicas

From 2023 (YouTube Edition): First Kits to Ship October 2023 Having formerly resurrected the storied shape of the Ryan ST—in effigy, anyway—Montrose, Colorado-based Tim>[...]

ANN's Daily Aero-Term (07.04.25): Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) [ICAO]

Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) [ICAO] Area navigation based on performance requirements for aircraft operating along an ATS route, on an instrument approach procedure or in a d>[...]

blog comments powered by Disqus



Advertisement

Advertisement

Podcasts

Advertisement

© 2007 - 2025 Web Development & Design by Pauli Systems, LC