Trump drops Twitter bomb on Lockheed Martin’s expensive stealth fighter

Donald Trump’s tweets targeting Boeing and Lockheed Martin won’t lower defense costs much but may give the president-elect the upper hand in procurement talks, two military analysts told CNBC on Friday.

The market reaction was swift.

Lockheed Martin’s stock declined $5.06, or 2 percent, to $247.74 in morning trading.

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump extracted a promise from Boeing’s chief executive that the cost of replacing Air Force One would not exceed $4bn, his latest move to use the bully pulpit to pressure companies to help advance his economic agenda.

The remarks came on the same day when Trump met with Marillyn Hewson, the CEO of Lockheed Martin, the manufacturer of F-35 fighter jets.

Speaking to reporters following the meeting, Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg said that he had assured Trump that costs for a replacement to Air Force One would not get out of control, Reuters reported.

As scheduled, President-elect Donald Trump called a meeting with Boeing Co.

Of course, Trump doesn’t seem to be taking into account the technological differences between the fourth-generation and fifth-generation fighter aircraft.

Although the F-35 program has been plagued by complications and costs have rocketed to a projected $379 billion, it is considerably newer than the F-18, which lacks the same stealth capabilities. And, of course, the Super Hornet is significantly cheaper.

Foxtrot Alpha previously reported on a prototype F/A-18 with a stealth body, but apparently it never got off the ground. The current presidential jet, a Boeing 747, needs replacing. “Primarily the F-35. That program is very, very expensive”.

Donald Trump announced on Thursday that he plans to cancel a large order of F-35 fighter planes for the USA military, causing shares of the aerospace company to plummet two percent.

“Well, the plane is totally out of control”.

“We’re going to make sure that he gets the best capability and that it’s done affordably”, he said.

The F-35 was created to accommodate the unique needs of each branch of the military: the F-35A is designed for the Air Force, the F-35B has capabilities that make it ideal for the amphibious Marine Corps, and the F-35C is designed for the Navy. The Pentagon estimates it will spend almost $400 billion to procure 2,457 of the single-engine fighters – and some $1.5 trillion in lifetime sustainment costs.

Lockheed Martin’s F-35 planes are touted as the most advanced weapons system in the world.

Trump’s repeated frustrations with the F-35’s costs have been echoed by others.

The F-35 program has suffered through a series of development problems and delays, boosting the total price tag for thousands of the jets to close to $400 billion.