F-35’s ‘Grotesque Overruns’ Are Now Past, Says Pentagon’s Chief at Odds With Trump
- Departing Carter says ‘we’ve got to keep working’ to improve
- Trump has called the Lockheed fighter jet ‘out of control’
Trump Pits Lockheed Versus Boeing With Tweet
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Lockheed Martin Corp.’s F-35 jet “has come a long way” since “grotesque” cost overruns and schedule delays plagued the costliest U.S. weapons system, departing Defense Secretary Ash Carter said in an appraisal at odds with the view of President-elect Donald Trump.
Because the $379 billion program is critical to three U.S. military services and many allied air forces, “it’s essential that it perform both in technology and in cost terms, and we’ve got to keep working on that,” Carter said in an interview Tuesday.