What're your thoughts on trump wanting to cancel the government Air Force one project? Don't you work in that field or something?

I don't know but I think you just got called out.

12/9/2016 2:10:42 PM

He'll find that he can't cancel it. The project is likely too far along, and it won't produce physical results until 2 election cycles from now.

More bluster, no substance.

12/9/2016 2:27:09 PM

I'm somewhat unread on the topic at hand, other than general industry knowledge on AF1. I also just kind of steered clear of news regarding this, cause I'm still salty over the election and hate everything that Trump does I can give a couple of first impressions though...

-Yeah, I'm in the field, or at least used to be. I work on civil programs now.

-We weren't working on AF1... It was the (to be) Marine One, the fleet of Presidential Helicopters.

-Just to give context, we were several years into the contract, and already had like 7 of the helicopters built when Obama announced he didn't need any new stinking helicopters. This no doubt was a 'public face' thing, to appear to be saving the taxpayer money. The kicker, as rjrumfel alluded to, is that the Helicopters wouldn't have been for Obama....they would have been for the next President, and onwards

-I think that what Trump has done is significantly worse than what Obama did. For reasons
1. I think that Obama cancelled his program to appear thrifty. I think that Trump mentioned cancelling the Boeing contract as retaliation to the Boeing CEO criticizing him. To me, that is an unacceptable practice.
2. Boeing's contract for AF1 is still in it's fledgling stages. They are still structuring their program, building their crew, and doing some startup tasks. It's not a blue sky project or anything, but still in the early stages. To have something like this happen to a program that is still new can be devastating. There isn't a large investment in the program yet, so it is seen as 'easier to cancel' in congress. The government would still, no doubt be in breach of contract, and open themselves up to lawsuits from Boeing were they to cancel this contract. But it's not like there's a ton of skin in the game yet.
3. Trump made some off the cuff remarks about the costs of the contract, which show he has no idea what he's talking about. I think that it makes the government's negotiators look inept, which is probably pretty demoralizing to your federal workforce.

-Wasn't the current AF1 built a few decades ago? That's ancient in terms of technology. I can imagine they Presidential suite has been upgraded from time to time, but jeez... let's act sexy my bros

12/9/2016 3:55:18 PM

yo homy yo

12/9/2016 5:12:29 PM

Word, thanks for the response my dude. I was curious what an "insiders" opinion would look like.

These days, we are all salty, except for Tennessee, fuck that state.

12/9/2016 7:22:36 PM

yo G, thanks for your help bruh

12/9/2016 11:29:28 PM

What up my dawgys, I too would like to thank my boy EMCE for his insider take on this developing story. It was a very infromative read.

Thanks again,

H. Shalom

12/11/2016 10:14:43 AM

So Trump recently made similar comments about Lockheed Martin's F-35, that it was overpriced and a waste of money, etc... this is despite the fact both the pentagon and Lockheed have agreed the program has gotten back on schedule. That the pentagon would say that, to me, is no small feat given their penchant for for praising LM and the work that they do in private, but excoriating them in the news.
So what was Trumps motivation here? I have no clue. But I do not think it's his priority to necessarily save taxpayer money.
Does the F-35 run a higher risk of being cancelled? I doubt it. That program is pretty far along, and is already delivering jets. Furthermore, I think that Lockheed had an ingenious approach to the F-35... they spread the manufacturing across several different states and countries....so the chance of multiple congressmen representing multiple states saying "cancel the project, and strip my state of thousands of jobs" is slim.


BUT.... after Trumps announcement, it is clear by now that he plans to try negotiations like this is the court of public opinion. That is silly in my opinion, because the public generally has very little knowledge of requirements, requested capabilities, design challenges and limitations, and user-acceptance. The public, like
Donald Trump, in general has no idea what they're talking about...and are in a poor position to speak on the price of a weapons platform.

Lastly, after Trump's announcement we saw stocks for LMT drop about 400pts. That certainly doesnt seem like pro-business to me. And considering so many of the employees for Lockheed have their retirement funds tied up in company stock, that doesn't seem pro-worker either.

[Edited on December 13, 2016 at 8:26 AM. Reason : I]

12/13/2016 8:21:41 AM

Lmt started to drop before Trump tweeted. Clearly someone with knowledge and a lot of stock decided to sell before the price dropped.

12/13/2016 8:41:12 AM