Donald Trump tweeted the following this afternoon:
"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!"
Given all the military people he has surrounded himself with, you'd think someone would tell him that these are two different airplanes with two different missions. There's nothing wrong with the F-18 other than that it's older technology - the Navy is still buying them for use on their aircraft carriers, and they're getting them at a discount because the plane is 20-years old. The F-35 is considered next generation - for one thing, it has stealth capabilities, while the F-18 does not You can't build an F-18 that is comparable to an F-35 unless you completely redesign the F-18, and that's going to drive the cost way up. Plus, he's saying we should replace new technology with old technology - which might make sense inside his reality bubble, but doesn't make sense in the real world.
So far, he's poked his nose into two aircraft projects - the F-35 and the next Air Force One - and has shown he doesn't really have a grasp on the process. With Air Force One, he said the cost was going to be over $4 Billion and the contract should be canceled. There is no contract to buy the planes (there are two of them, which he also seems to be unaware of); Boeing has a $170 million contract to DESIGN the planes, which would not be deliverable until about 2026, and Congress has not appropriated a dime for the purchase.
He's trying to show what a great negotiator he is and will continue to be, but in order to negotiate a deal you have to understand the deal. What he and his supporters are about to learn is that what works in real estate doesn't necessarily translate to government. |
