Donald Trump tweet reignites the Boeing vs Lockheed dogfight
Washington — President-elect Donald Trump has upended years of Pentagon procurement planning with a tweet saying he has asked Boeing to price an upgrade of its F-18 Super Hornet jet that may replace Lockheed Martin’s F-35, the priciest US weapon system to date. "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!" Trump tweeted on Thursday. But that may not be possible. Lockheed’s $379bn F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is intended to be the mainstay of the US Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, replacing older planes, including early models of Boeing’s F-18. Advanced development of the F-35 started in 2001, and Lockheed plans to build more than 3,000 of the aircraft for the US and allied forces, a project that will create tens of thousands of jobs at factories in the US and abroad. In his trademark, 140-characters-or-less style, Trump did more than pit two iconic US groups against each other: he sidelin...
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