(Jan 18): US President-elect Donald Trump has asked Lockheed Martin Corp to reduce costs on the US$379 billion F-35 fighter-jet programme by at least 10%, according to Roger Carr, chairman of BAE Systems Plc, which is a key subcontractor on the program.

“We’ve been told through Lockheed that the president has an ambition to reduce the cost of that aircraft by a material amount of money, many percent, into double digits over a period,” Carr said in an interview Tuesday with Bloomberg Television from the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. “We respect that and we’ll work towards a contribution towards that.”

Trump has targeted defence contractors including Lockheed and Boeing Co for what he says are excessive expenses on government projects. Marillyn Hewson, Lockheed’s chief executive officer, has met twice with Trump after he attacked the company on the F-35 jet, the largest US weapons programme. The programme for more than 3,000 fighters started development in 2001 and the 200th aircraft was delivered Jan 11.

BAE, Europe’s biggest defence company, is the main sub-contractor for the F-35, making the fuselage, tail and wing parts and overseeing production of the fuel, ejection and life-support systems and elements of weapons integration. Hewson told Trump last week that Lockheed is close to a deal with the Pentagon to lower costs “significantly’’ on the next and largest production lot of F-35s.