If Trump decides to cut the number of aircraft the US Air Force purchases, it would mean an increase in the cost per aircraft for Israel.
As Israel awaited the arrival of its first two F-35 fighter jets, US President-elect Donald Trump said on Monday that he would completely reevaluate the costly aircraft program once he takes office on January 20.
In a tweet, Trump said that the cost of Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jet program was too high and that he would shave billions from the project once he takes office.
"The F-35 program and cost is out of control. Billions of dollars can and will be saved on military (and other) purchases after January 20," Trump said on Twitter.
Responding to criticism from Trump, a company executive in Israel said Lockheed Martin has invested large sums of money to reduce the price of the F-35 stealth fighter program.
"Since the beginning, we have invested hundreds of millions of dollars to reduce the price of the airplane by about 70 percent since its original costing, and we project it to be about 85 million dollars in the 2019 or 2020 time frame," said Jeff Babione, Lockheed Martin's F-35 program leader.
If Trump decides to cut the number of aircraft the US Air Force purchases, it would mean an increase in the cost per aircraft for Israel. It would also put into question Israel's decision to align its air force's future with the F-35.
Meanwhile, the first two F-35s departed on Monday afternoon from Italy on the last leg of their voyage to Israel after a short delay due to inclement weather conditions in the European country, the IDF said.
A welcoming ceremony for the first of a new batch of the stealth aircraft was set to take place at 7:30 p.m. Monday at the Nevatim Airbase near Beersheba.
According to the IDF, security forces in both countries deemed it safer to wait until weather conditions improved before sending the fighter jets to Israel as planned.