But nothing has really changed with the F-35 program since Trump took office.

Last Friday, Secretary of Defense James Mattis ordered reviews of both Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program and Boeing’s development contract for the Air Force One replacement program. But apparently the DOD and Lockheed were able to fix any problems with the program over the weekend, as President Donald Trump declared the F-35 program was now in “good shape” at a Monday meeting with small business leaders, which was broadcast by CNN.

Speaking of Lockheed, Trump said, “We’re cutting the price of their planes by a lot.”

Trump said that he had been working on the F-35 program since after the election, and “I was able to get $600 million off” the next block of F-35s being built.

Trump also said, “I appreciate Boeing coming in and competing” for future fighter purchases (Mattis’ ordered review of the F-35 program includes looking at a “comparable” variant of the F/A-18 Super Hornet to help to fill the gap left by delays in the F-35 program). But Trump added, “The F-35 fighter jet — a great plane by the way, I have to tell you, and Lockheed is doing a very good job as of now. There were great delays, about seven years of delays, tremendous cost overruns. We’ve ended all of that and we’ve got that program really, really now in good shape, so I’m very proud of that.”

Nothing has really changed with the F-35 program since Trump took office. Most of the program’s delays occurred during the Bush administration; the program was restructured in 2011, and new requirements were added to the aircraft since then. Lockheed had already promised to deliver the aircraft at a much lower “fly-away” cost. Back in November, the DOD made a unilateral demand for Block 9 of low-rate production, lowering the cost of the 42 F-35A aircraft ordered for the Air Force to $102 million (with the remaining Navy and Marine Corps aircraft in the total of 57 to be built carrying a somewhat higher, but still reduced, price tag).

https://youtu.be/Ho9PK7x-QD0

Trump’s claim of an additional $600 million applies to the next block of aircraft—a 90-plane order. Negotiations for Block 10 were already under way before the election, and the projected price per aircraft was under $100 million. The increased production rate would reduce Lockheed’s costs, in theory. With the price already set to drop by at least $2 million per aircraft, another 4 percent off the lot’s price doesn’t seem to be much of a stretch.

Lockheed executives had promised a price reduction for the F-35 following a tweet by Trump in December. Aside from the tweet, and Mattis’ ordered review, it’s not clear what sort of work Trump has done on the program since.