President Trump on Monday touted increased savings on the “out of control” F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, upping his claim of saving $600 million to $700 million in a troop talk Monday.
When Lockheed Martin announced the deal to build the next lot of F-35 fighter jets last week, it came with a new lower price tag of under $100 million apiece for the Air Force version.
Trump, who has sharply criticized the Pentagon’s priciest weapons system ever, said he has been working with Lockheed CEO Marillyn Hewson since before his inauguration, and last week took credit for saving the taxpayers $600 million on the latest order.
After months of negotiations and years of work steadily bringing down the price of the program, the Pentagon reached an agreement with Lockheed Martin for the 10th batch of F-35 aircraft on Friday, at a price reduction of 8 percent, which works out to $728 million in savings over the previous batch.
Speaking to U.S. troops at MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Fla., on Monday, Trump again to took credit for the entire cost reduction, a claim in variance with most industry experts who say the price cuts were already in the works.
“We will ensure no taxpayer dollars are wasted,” Trump said. “I have already saved more than $700 million when I got involved in the negotiation on the F-35. You know about that.”
Trump claims his personal intervention after putting Lockheed on notice in a December tweet that the F-35 program was “out of control” broke a deadlock that prevented an agreement on the last lot of planes.
Lockheed Martin, which would have little to gain by disputing the president, backed up his original claim in a carefully worded statement on Friday.
“President Trump’s personal involvement in the F-35 program accelerated the negotiations and sharpened our focus on driving down the price,” Lockheed said in statement. “The agreement was reached in a matter of weeks and represents significant savings over previous contracts.”
