- Secretary of Defense nominee James Mattis said at today's Senate confirmation hearing that Lockheed Martin's (LMT -0.9%) F-35 stealth fighter is vital for the U.S. and its allies.
- Pres.-elect Trump has been a persistent critic of the F-35, and ripped the program yesterday for being behind schedule and over budget, but Mattis said Trump has "in no way shown any lack of support" for the F-35 but just wants "bang for his buck."
- Mattis also suggested that human pilots fly Northrop Grumman's (NOC -1%) forthcoming B-21 bomber, which has been criticized by Senate Armed Services Chairman McCain for not being more transparent on its total acquisition costs.
- He voiced support for the recapitalization of U.S. nuclear assets, including the Columbia-class ballistic-missile submarine, for which General Dynamics (GD -0.2%) is the prime contractor; Mattis is a GD shareholder but says he is resigning from GD's board and selling his GD stock, and would recuse himself from matters related to GD for one year.