Posted on 01/13/2017 1:17:02 PM PST by SeekAndFind
If nothing else, we may be seeing what can happen when a little more competition gets introduced into government contracting. A few weeks ago, Donald Trump publicly complained about the price of the F-35, being produced by Lockheed Martin, calling it “out of control,” and suggested that he’d check in with Boeing on whether they could do any better. This wasn’t too long after Trump slammed Boeing for the cost of the new Air Force One fleet, and suggested that he’d cancel the program and look for someone else to build it.
How did all that work out? Boeing and Lockheed both pledged price cuts to keep their contracts — and Lockheed CEO Marillyn Hewson topped it off with an announcement of 1800 new jobs in Texas. It’s not a bad way for a president-elect to end a weekly news cycle:
BREAKING: Lockheed Martin CEO says company will add 1800 jobs at its Ft. Worth operation pic.twitter.com/EHExBdGoGR
— CNBC Now (@CNBCnow) January 13, 2017
Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) is close to a deal to significantly lower the cost of its F-35 aircraft, Chief Executive Officer Marillyn Hewson said on Friday after meeting with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump.
“I certainly share his views that we need to get the best capability to our men and women in uniform, and we have to get it at the lowest possible price,” Hewson said to reporters in Trump Tower.
Hewson had previously assured Trump she would drive down the cost of the company’s fighter jet, after he tweeted last month that he was asking rival aerospace company Boeing Co (BA.N) whether it could offer a cheaper alternative to the F-35.
This kind of pressure could raise eyebrows when applied to private-sector firms, but this is unlike Carrier and GM. The federal government is the customer for both the Boeing and Lockheed deals, and so this is more of a direct negotiation context rather than outside interference by a regulator. It raises the question about just how well the government performs in negotiating deals with its contractors. Donald Trump hasn’t even taken the oath of office yet and he’s restructured two multi-billion dollar deals and got a commitment for almost two thousand more jobs out it. That doesn’t exactly speak well for previous administrations on contracting, and not just the most recent.
Of course, this process will only work to a limited extent. The DoD needs significant reform in its contracting processes, part of which has been worsened by consolidation in the industry. For job creation, downsizing regulation and putting Congress back in control of lawmaking will provide a better incentive than Oval Office wheeling and dealing, but the point has been made by the latter.
157 duplicates is the record, so this ain’t no big thing.
Don’t get too excited - one of the reasons the plane is such a POS is prior cost cutting removed many of its abilities and capabilities ... Now its just a show piece that to do most any job correctly and survive would have to be redesigned from the ground up - a very expensive POS. More cost cutting will just make a cheaper plane that cannot do much of anything and survive.
You can say that again.
Trump ain’t the only one on a roll - but it bears repeating. ;-)
“one of the reasons the plane is such a POS is prior cost cutting removed many of its abilities and capabilities”
Nope. Under delivering while overspending caused cuts. The program has had plenty of funding for all features to have been delivered.
I accidentally deleted several reports on exactly why the thing is a POS so I cannot give you any links. However, “f-35 technical reports” search will turn up its many problems.
Among then are likely to be some of the ones I read which specifically cite cost cutting as a major problem. This was done in order to include newly needed features by the Pentagon. These new features where not included in the original design and compromised some that were in the original, as I recall.
If one was simply going to fly the thing around in air shows and the like, it would be just fine, However, placing it in a combat situation is a non-survival situation at present and for the foreseeable future. One such report (many pages long) described each problem in great detail, concluding that the thing needs to be scrapped, redesigned from the ground up, or re-envisioned/re-purposed; short of scrapping, these choices will cost more money, not less, to rectify.
The issue isn’t so much funding as the software and other items are decades, if ever, away from working as conceived.
So while DJT may have talked Lockmart’s CEO into making them cheaper, they will remain a POS, only a cheaper POS.
“So while DJT may have talked Lockmart’s CEO into making them cheaper, they will remain a POS, only a cheaper POS.”.........
I have no knowledge of the quality of the Lockheed Martin F-35 aircraft but can assure you, no matter WHAT kind or brand of aircraft our government “appointees” purchase, they are A VERY EXPENSIVE POS! Trump’s ability in the “Art of the deal” should have a significant influence on many future government purchases, IMO he WILL NOT allow anyone to buy junk!
That’s what I forgot. My wife wanted me to pick up a dozen rolls at the grocery store. Thanks for the reminder;)
“IMO he WILL NOT allow anyone to buy junk!”
Problem is we have already bought quite a few of these POS of each variety. As it stands the Naval variety has a horrible pilot life threatening nose gear problem which is just now being publicly revealed, but has been known since 2014 with no fix forthcoming and none in the works. This is just the ‘tip of the ice berg’ with even more severe problems buried in technical reports.
(Nose gear issue)...”has been known since 2014 with no fix forthcoming and none in the works”............
Trump DID NOT buy that plane, it was likely purchased during odumbo’s time. Do you for one minute think that Trump would keep buying elevators for his hotels if they had a problem of failing? NO, he would get that problem resolved and pronto. I believe Trump will do what is necessary to keep our pilots safe and if that means “fixing” the F-35 landing gear problems, it will get fixed or the plane will be “nixed”.
You have a lot of faith in your political leaders - let’s hope it is not misplaced.
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