The particular person quickly to be answerable for slicing federal spending is blasting a Lockheed Martin jet made in Fort Value.
Billionaire Elon Musk, the person behind Tesla and SpaceX, mentioned Tuesday, Nov. 26, on X that the U.S. ought to pull the plug on the Lockheed-Martin’s F-35, made in Fort Value.
“Some US weapons systems are good, albeit overpriced, but please, in the name of all that is holy, let us stop the worst military value for money in history that is the F-35 program!” he wrote.
President-elect Donald Trump has tapped Musk and fellow-billionnaire Vivek Ramaswamy to move up his new Division of Authorities Effectivity, aka DOGE (sure, just like the crypto foreign money.) They’ll pave the best way for Trump’s administration to “dismantle Government Bureaucracy, slash excess regulations, cut wasteful expenditures, and restructure Federal Agencies,” Trump mentioned in a press release.
Musk finally goals to chop $2 trillion in annual federal spending, however in an op-ed within the Wall Avenue Journal, he and Ramaswamy wrote that they plan to begin with slicing $500 billion in federal spending that’s not approved by Congress.
Musk shared a video on Sunday, Nov. 24 that seems to indicate a big group of drones made by China, captioning the publish, “Meanwhile, some idiots are still building manned fighter jets like the F-35.”
In one other publish on Monday, Nov. 25 Musk wrote: “The F-35 design was broken at the requirements level, because it was required to be too many things to too many people. This made it an expensive & complex jack of all trades, master of none. Success was never in the set of possible outcomes. And manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones anyway. Will just get pilots killed.”
Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program helps greater than 49,000 direct and oblique jobs within the Fort Value space generates $9.4 billion in annual financial impression.
As a federal contractor, the corporate’s F-35 “plays a crucial role” within the Division of Protection’s “ability to meet current and future U.S. national security goals,” in line with the U.S. Authorities Accountability Workplace.
However this system has seen manufacturing points and rising prices because the Air Power and Navy plan to make use of the jets much less. The F-35 has not met their readiness objectives for the previous six years, in line with the U.S. Authorities Accountability Workplace.
Requested about Musk’s publish in gentle of his anticipated function in Trump’s administration, the corporate mentioned it’s wanting ahead to working with the incoming president and Congress.
“As we did in his first term, we look forward to a strong working relationship with President Trump, his team, and also with the new Congress to strengthen our national defense,” Lockheed Martin mentioned in a press release. “The F-35 is the most advanced, survivable and connected fighter aircraft in the world, a vital deterrent and the cornerstone of joint all-domain operations.”
Incoming U.S. Rep. Craig Goldman, a Republican from Fort Value, mentioned he’ll battle for the continuation and growth the F-35 program. He’s taking over the district represented by Kay Granger, who’s retiring.
Goldman mentioned he respects a lot of who Musk is and the improvements he’s dropped at the world, however that that is an space the place they disagree. He praised the “brilliance of what the F-35 and the capabilities of what the F-35 has been able to do” for Israel within the struggle with Hamas. Musk may change his thoughts had been he to have a dialog with the Israeli authorities, Goldman mentioned.
“I’m going to fight like hell to make sure those cuts aren’t made,” Goldman mentioned. “All that still has to go through Congress.”
Sen. John Cornyn, Republican representing Texas statewide, was not accessible for an interview on Nov. 26. Spokespersons for Rep. Marc Vesay, a Fort Value Democrat, and Sen. Ted Cruz, a Republican additionally representing Texas Statewide, didn’t instantly return requests for remark.
The Division of Protection additionally didn’t instantly return requests for remark.