Letter: The other thing Trump will do at Boeing

While he is at the Boeing plant, I predict that President Trump will significantly reduce the number of Lockheed F-35Cs [the Navy version of the F-35] the government will buy. Instead, although it will raise the overall price of F-35As per plane [because the production run will be far less], the President will commit to buying many more Boeing F/A-18F/G fighter aircraft for the Navy. [Note, however, that the Boeing plant in North Charleston only produces passenger aircraft such as the 787, so this is not more jobs for SC.]

Background: The Navy does not believe it needs a carrier plane with the advanced capabilities of the Lockheed F-35C; it can buy a lot more Boeing F/A-18s than it could with the funds it has been allotted for fighters -- even though it is a less capable aircraft.

However, the procurement of F-35B aircraft, the Marine Corps version, will remain approximately the same.

This reduction of procurement of F-35Cs, while increasing the number of F/A-18F/Gs overall, will allow the Navy to buy more fighters in the long run -- which they desperately need -- while allowing the President to say he is reducing procurement costs overall [which is true because -- even though the Navy will get more fighters than they ordinarily would have, the cost of each F/A-18F/G is significantly less than the cost of each F-35C].

This story was originally published February 16, 2017 at 9:58 PM with the headline "Letter: The other thing Trump will do at Boeing."