Trump Joins Line of Critics of Costly Fighter Jet
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR, CHRISTOPHER DREW and ISABEL KERSHNERDEC. 12, 2016
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald J. Trump said on Monday that the cost of building the military’s next-generation fighter jet, the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, had spiraled “out of control,” and he vowed to save billions of dollars on military programs once he enters office next month.
In a Twitter post on Monday morning and a series of comments since last week, the president-elect assailed cost overruns for the Lockheed Martin-built fighter jet that have pushed the project’s cost beyond $400 billion, making the plane the most expensive weapons system in military history.
“The F-35 program and cost is out of control,” Mr. Trump wrote in a Twitter post just before 8:30 a.m. “Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th.”
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