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Trump wants to cut F-35/military expenses, defense contractors stock plummet


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2016 Dec 12, 2:49pm   7,801 views  13 comments

by Dan8267   ➕follow (4)   💰tip   ignore  

Heard this on NPR this morning, but can't find a link there, so Bloomberg...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-12-12/lockheed-drops-as-trump-tweets-f-35-costs-are-out-of-control

Defense stocks plunged as President-elect Donald Trump took aim at another high-profile military program: Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 fighter jet, the Pentagon’s most expensive weapons system.

“The F-35 program and cost is out of control,” Trump posted Monday on Twitter. “Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20th,” inauguration day.

Trump’s criticism of defense program costs has tempered a post-election rally driven by his call on the stump for a larger armed force and greater fleets of combat ships and fighter jets. He made similar complaints on the “Fox News Sunday” television program and on Saturday posted a link to a Washington Post article about a Pentagon report on $125 billion in administrative waste.

It would be a great thing if Trump follows through on this. Of course, all those welfare queens making weapons will be shit out of luck. Fuck them.

#politics

Comments 1 - 13 of 13        Search these comments

1   MisdemeanorRebel   2016 Dec 12, 4:24pm  

It would be wonderful. 15 years of development and not a single unit is fully operational. It's another F-111.

Except the F-111 was designed and built 4 decades ago, but was faster and carried a heavier payload than the F-35. Oh, and had 3-4x the Range.

Oh, and it lost it's first dogfight with another 70s era airframe, the F-16.
http://www.thetruthaboutguns.com/2015/07/robert-farago/the-f35-sucks/

"B-b-b-but, Beyond Visual Range! One missile, one kill! Dogfighting is a thing of the past. Shut up about Vietnam and the Bekaa Valley!"

Jesus Christ it's a piece of shit.

2   HEY YOU   2016 Dec 12, 4:30pm  

Thanks Republican voters.Not for trump but for your stupidity for allowing this waste of taxes which you ignorant bastards despise. You need to work harder to keep up this MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX SOCIALISM.

3   Patrick   2016 Dec 12, 5:13pm  

HEY YOU says

Thanks Republican voters.Not for trump but for your stupidity for allowing this waste of taxes which you ignorant bastards despise. You need to work harder to keep up this MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX SOCIALISM.

Trump seems to be have the correct solution here.

4   Dan8267   2016 Dec 12, 5:21pm  

rando says

Trump seems to be have the correct solution here.

Yes, and it will be interesting to see what happens if he follows through. A lot of Trump supporters get their bread and butter from these wasteful defense contracts, especially in the rust belt.

5   MisdemeanorRebel   2016 Dec 12, 6:12pm  

(I forgot to add, the F-111 didn't take 15 years from approval to operational status)

6   HEY YOU   2016 Dec 12, 7:49pm  

rando says

HEY YOU says

Thanks Republican voters.Not for trump but for your stupidity for allowing this waste of taxes which you ignorant bastards despise. You need to work harder to keep up this MILITARY INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX SOCIALISM.

Trump seems to be have the correct solution here.

Most of what is being said by those on the right is talk that is the other side of the coin which is represented by those talking point Democrats. It's mostly sensationalism for the MSM.
I will watching to see what can be done by the Republicans after they are sworn in. I don't really believe that anything will change the left /right paradigm.

Whether screwed by the right or screwed by left.
One thing's for sure we're SCREWED.

7   anonymous   2016 Dec 12, 9:02pm  

@HEY YOU - a word of advice whether you like it or not, and it's not just you that does this. When you can't ever give credit or constantly put down an individual or a party because of your personal political ideology and/or bias, you discredit yourself immensely to where fewer and fewer people read your posts or take you seriously.

Take Dan as an example in this thread. I disagree with some of what he says, but I also agree with many of his ideas. But because he believes in ideas and concepts based on their merit, I actually read his posts and genuinely think about them.

When you constantly engage in ad hominem, you become noise that I (and many others) just start to filter out.

8   MMR   2016 Dec 13, 5:44am  

Dan8267 says

rando says

Trump seems to be have the correct solution here.

Yes, and it will be interesting to see what happens if he follows through. A lot of Trump supporters get their bread and butter from these wasteful defense contracts, especially in the rust belt.

Maybe true for other defense contractors but not Lockheed

http://www.lockheedmartinjobs.com/locations.aspx

9   Dan8267   2016 Dec 13, 8:41am  

Yes, but Trump is talking about negotiating better deals with all contractors. If he follows through, it will be an industry wide bust, and I'm all for that.

10   MisdemeanorRebel   2016 Dec 13, 9:37am  

More deficiencies with the F-35A:

* Cannot designate ground targets for other aircraft. Only has a laser designation system for it's own craft to use GBU-12 bombs
* Only carries two bombs and two AAMs, otherwise it is unstealthy (yet marketing bragsheets have it sneaking up and using up to 6 AMRAAMS, 4 of which would have to be wing mounted and then goodbye Stealth due to wingmounted missiles that reflect radar)
* Doesn't really supercruise !!! Yeah, the supercruise only works if it goes on afterburner and then maintains a high level of thrust. It can't supercruise without the afterburner boosting it first

* Is not a self-contained solution, and will still need jamming and acquisition support when searching for and engaging targets (another bragsheet claim busted)

* And much, much more

The afterburner apparently burns off the stealth coating, also.

These things won't be fixed under the current plan which is already years out and behind schedule.

For the love of god, nix this thing.

Leaked Pentagon memo of September 2016:
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/3035572-DOT-amp-E-AF-IOC-Memo.html#document/p4/a316106

11   joshuatrio   2016 Dec 13, 10:23am  

I have a few close friends who worked on the F35 program back in the day. They said it's way over budget and is a colossal waste of tax payer money.

Lockheed hired a ton of heads for the project without giving them anything to do. They mentioned of the millions in dollars spent on labs - that don't actually do anything, and tons of employees who just muck around all day.

That plane rolled off the assembly line (the first demo) back in 2006 I think. Since then, it's just sat around for the last 11 years leaking oil.

12   HEY YOU   2017 Jun 22, 10:54pm  

Trump Republicans were guaranteed to not lose any money on their investments.
Why haven't Rep/Cons controlled,"out of control" to date?

13   Rew   2017 Jul 10, 1:03pm  

We need goddamned steam!

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