$400 Billion Boost To Californian Economy, Lockheed Optimistic Of Production

The Californian economy will get a boost of $400 Billion if the military fighter jet tender gets approved. This Supersonic jet deal is meant to replace a major chunk of US fighter jets. Lockheed Martin corporation said that it is ahead of schedule and is capable of meeting the deal successfully before the date.  Lockheed Martin is the major contractor of F-35 deal. There are a total of 1300 suppliers and contractors from 47 states, while the project is undergoing successfully from last five years in San Diego. The project is expected to be taking 15 more years now.

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The multi billion dollar deals will also create over 1100 jobs for F-35 workers. It gave a boost of $159 million to the economy of San Diego this year. President Obama has proposed a cutting in expenditure of the project. As the program is very costly, it is under a close scrutiny by the Government officials. In spite of that, the deal seems to be worth of the technology. Speaking about the same, the Lockheed Martin F-35 program director Steve Callaghan said, “The F-35 is still the most efficient, cost-effective way to replace that many airplanes as affordably as you possibly can.” Lock heed martin said that the fighter planes are limited in production and if the deal gets a nod then the production can be stepped up to 20 from current 2 air crafts a day.

The F-35 will replace at least three planes that are currently used by US military and which are also 20 years old.  The F-16 and F-18 which is used by the Air Force and the AV-8 Harrier used by the Marines are the expected three to be replaced.

In other news, Australia also wants to replace classic Hornet and Super Hornet aircrafts. The Australian Government plans to buy 14 fifth generation stealth bomber aircrafts at a cost of $3 Billion. The F-35 Joint strike aircrafts are the most expensive in history. However many nations throughout the world are spending $400 billion in purchasing and $900 billion in maintenance during its 25 years life.

The government has appointed to officials as senior customers who will be responsible to correctly evaluate the proposed deal and to try to bring the projects costs down. The two bureaucrats are Stephen Gumley, Defense Materiel Organization chief executive and David M. Van Buren, the principal deputy assistant secretary for acquisition with the US Air Force. The current costs of the deal are projected to be around $1.3trillion.

As far as the US military requirements are concerned, they want about 2,400 of the jets, which will also include a version for the Marines that are capable of taking off on short runways and also land vertically on amphibious assault ships or austere airfields. These defense deals surely look very costly. In such cases a correct project evaluation is very much necessary. Apart from costs, it is sure that the deal will have a great impact on economy.

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