Lockheed shares fall as Trump calls F-35 program costly

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Shares for aerospace giant Lockheed Martin dropped sharply after President-elect Donald Trump slammed the company’s F-35 fighter jet costs.

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

Lockheed’s stock dipped 4.1 percent to $248.86 after that.

The company makes the F-35 one-seat fighter aircraft for the U.S. and is a major defense contractor. The program made up 20 percent of Lockheed's total revenue last year.

The jets are assembled in Fort Worth and helps sustain thousands of jobs in the area.

Those who work on the F-35 program responded by saying the company understands concerns about affordability and has invested millions of dollars to reduce the jet’s price.

Economic Analyst Allyn Needham says too much money has already been spent on the program, and we and our allies depend on the F-35.

"Defense contractors should now be on notice that business as usual has changed, going to have to push to reduce costs to be able to produce products that the Pentagon will accept and will ultimately be long term contracts,” she said.

Fort Worth Democratic Congressman Marc Veasey, who's on the House Armed Services Committee, says he's willing to talk about cost-saving proposals but not at the expense of safety or jobs in North Texas.

This is the second time in a week that Trump has blasted U.S. aircraft spending. Last week, Trump tweeted that costs to build new presidential planes by Boeing Corp. were "out of control" and ended the tweet with "Cancel order!"