Lockheed Martin Corp.’s chief executive officer Marillyn Hewson met with President-elect Donald Trump Thursday, and she called the meeting “productive” in a statement.
“I had a productive meeting with President-elect Trump this afternoon,” Hewson said in the statement.
“I appreciated the opportunity to discuss the importance of the F-35 program and the progress we’ve made in bringing the costs down. The F-35 is a critical program to our national security, and I conveyed our continued commitment to delivering an affordable aircraft to our U.S. military and our allies.”
The full details of the meeting were not immediately available.
The talks come after some controversy over the cost of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which is the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons program. Trump recently tweeted, “The F-35 program and cost is out of control.”
Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, who is in charge of the program, defended the costs, retorting that it is not out of control, but he will need up to $532 million for the program. This will cover the $100 million removed from F-35 accounts by Pentagon top brass in 2014 for unrelated projects. Another $165 million was used to meet new requirements added since 2011. The remaining $267 million is needed for problems that have arisen in the program over the past five years.
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