Less than a month after president-elect Trump first tweeted about the F-35's high costs, and a week after he brought up the F-35 in his first press conference, Reuters reports that The U.S. Department of Defense and Lockheed Martin are close to deal for a contract worth almost $9 billion as negotiations are poised to bring the price per F-35 below $100 million for the first time.
The cold war is officially back.
The Senate Armed Services Committee is currently hearing the testimony of retired Marine General James Mattis, picked by Donald Trump to take over the Department of Defense.
Having drawn the ire of the mainstream press for his extensive use of Twitter in announcing major developments and policy shifts, President-elect Donald Trump will not end the "onslaught" of posts on Twitter that fed his unconventional campaign, even after taking on the formalized duties of the Oval Office later this month, as Bloomberg notes following an announcement by incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer who said he expects Trump "will boldly use" Twitter to make major policy announcements.
As president-elect Trump plays Boeing and Lockheed off against each other, China flexed its military muscles once again - after sending its aircraft carrier Liaoning into the western Pacific - by testing the latest version of its fifth-generation stealth fighter, state media reported on Monday, as it tries to end the West’s monopoly on the world’s most advanced warplanes.
It appears the so-called 'Twitter-spanking' approach of president-elect Trump is working. First Carrier, then Ford, and now, following his earlier jab at Lockheed's F-35 costs by asking Boeing to price-out a comparable F-18, Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson has reportedly given Trump her "personal commitment" to "aggressively" drive down costs of the F-35 program. The question is what was the quid-pro-quo in this instance?
Following this tweet from Trump...