By: Jill Aitoro
President Donald Trump’s criticism about the pricetag of the F-35 “was fair,” said Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson, though she stopped short of confirming whether his demands for cost cuts actually influenced reductions.
Hewson, in an interview with Defense News Tuesday, credited Trump for his astute understanding of volume and the need to drive costs down – an understanding that comes with business savvy, she noted. While Hewson opted to not remark on Trump’s approach for critiquing programs costs – specifically choosing to "set aside tweets" and focus instead on their interactions – she did describe his demand for a close look at cost as constructive.
“He wanted to first understand the capabilities of the systems and spent time with military leadership understanding the actual programs,” Hewson said. “Then we had a good dialogue about how do we get through the current negotiations, how do we continue to bring the price down, how do we get to a point where we can get to a more economic order quantity – multi-year, block buy, or something like that. He recognizes the capability was needed of the F-35, but he also recognized he wanted to get the best price. I was encouraged by those discussions and continue to be.”
In February, the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin came to an agreement on the tenth lot of F-35 joint strike fighters, with the per-plane cost on the most common F-35A model dropping below $100 million for the first time. Trump took credit for the cost reductions, even as analysts were quick to point out they were in the works before his election.
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