Trump F-35 Tweet Sends Lockheed Martin Stock crashing

Lockheed Martin lost as much as four percent of its total value in the moments after US president-elect Donald Trump tweeted that the cost of the military jet maker's project to build advanced F-35 Lightning II fighters was "out of control."

Panicked investors dumping stock initially shaved off around $3.5 billion from the company's value, though the share price had recovered somewhat by the close of trading on Monday, leaving it nearly 2.5 percent down on the previous day, or a dip of around $2 billion

Trump claimed "billions of dollars can and will be saved on military purchases" after he is inaugurated as president of the US.

The US government's procurement deal for Lockheed's F-35 joint strike fighter is its most expensive ever—with costs said to be currently hovering around $400 billion (£314.5 billion), $100 billion (£78.7 billion) of which has already been spent, according to the New York Times. The project has been beset by cost overruns and hitches in both software and hardware throughout its 15-year history, and the first F-35 squadron only entered service in August, when fresh upgrades meant that pilots had managed "88 individual aircraft sorties without a software problem."

Last year, a test pilot admitted that the new fighter was at a disadvantage in dogfights with the venerable F-16, a fighter first introduced in 1978, because it climbed and turned slower.

In a markedly meek response to the future US president, Lockheed's F-35 general manager, Jeff Babione, described it as “the most advanced aircraft in history,” claimed that the company understood "the importance of affordability," and said that he believed the price of each aircraft would end up at $85 million (£66.9 million) by 2019 or 2020. Depending on the model, each unit currently costs between $98 and $116 million (£77-£91 million).

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