And these organizations - Yuma 50, (inaudible) - I mean, they're doing everything from helping our deployed airmen's families - or all the services, when they're deployed - you know, get their oil changed; you know, help with daycare. I mean, you name it. The things that they do to step in, where the military has some legal limitations, and the civilian community, civic society steps in, it's really extraordinary.
So I just want to leave it at that. I'm so grateful for allowing me to be here. And thank you for coming to see this.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, it's a great state. We love Arizona. General, could you maybe talk about Luke a little bit? Because it's got a big reputation.
GENERAL CANTERBURY: Yes, sir. It is an honor and privilege to lead the more than 5,600 men and women of Luke Air Force Base. Our mission is simple: We train the world's greatest fighter pilots here. Luke Air Force Base is responsible for training about 95 percent of the United States' Air Force fighter pilots between the 944th Wing and our 56th Fighter Wing. And it is an honor to use the equipment that these men and women provide to us, and the taxpayers provide to us to use this equipment. And we're not going to fail, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: And your father was the boss here too, right? (Laughter.)
GENERAL CANTERBURY: Yes, sir.
THE PRESIDENT: He showed me a picture. They looked like twins. He showed me a picture. And he's still around, he's still healthy, and he's still telling you what to do, right?
GENERAL CANTERBURY: Yes, sir. (Laughter.) Every night (inaudible) debrief, and he's anxiously awaiting a phone call at night, sir. (Laughter.)
THE PRESIDENT: That's right. You give him my regards.
GENERAL CANTERBURY: Thank you, sir. Will do.
Marillyn, maybe you could tell us a little about what's going on with Lockheed Martin.
MS. HEWSON: Well, Mr. President, thank you for the opportunity to participate in this important conversation, especially right here at Luke, where this is the largest F-35 base in the world, and growing. We have - you know, with the aircraft that are coming in here, you highlighted how important the capability is for our nation. And it is the best capability.
But the study that you referenced, I just want to thank you for commissioning that. I think it's very important, because American aerospace and defense is a major part of the economic strength of this country. And when we look at 2.4 million jobs in aerospace and defense, and a trade surplus of $86 billion, we know it's important that your study that you commissioned uncovered that we do have fragility in the supply chain, we do have capabilities that we need to bolster.
And so we're very pleased to be working with your administration, with the Department of Defense, on those recommendations that came out of that. So thank you for the opportunity to be here.
THE PRESIDENT: So, on the F-35, has the stealth gotten even better? Because it was always considered extraordinary. Has it really been upped, or is it at that same level, would you say?
MS. HEWSON: Well, I would say, sir, that we're at the point where we delivered over 300 aircraft, and the aircraft were out of the initial design phase, and this is (inaudible) design phase. Now, we'll do upgrades to the aircraft, whether it's software and other things over time that the U.S. government will commission industry to do.
So we'll keep it ahead of the threat. That's the goal. And (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: And it is ahead. It's a great plane. Thank you very much.
Dennis, from Boeing?
MR. MUILENBURG: Well, thank you, Mr. President, for being here as well. And I think as you saw earlier, you saw one of our Apache helicopters here as well.
THE PRESIDENT: That's true. Wow.
MR. MUILENBURG: Another great product produced here in the state of Arizona.
THE PRESIDENT: That's something.
MR. MUILENBURG: We had chance to go down and see our team in Mesa earlier today, and really proud to support our servicemen and women. And training for the future, as well, with the new T-X trainer that will be coming online - we're looking forward to supporting our U.S. Air Force customer there, as well.
And I want to thank you again for the emphasis on the strength of the industrial base here. And you referenced the report, as did Marillyn. And investing in aerospace and defense is a great thing for the country - economically; from a national security standpoint. And in particular, some of your policies around tax reform and regulatory reform is sustaining the gains there. Really important. That's allowing us to invest and innovate in defense.
I think we have challenges in the workforce side and our supply chain strength for the future - areas where we're going to continue to work.
THE PRESIDENT: Now you can solve those challenges.
MR. MUILENBURG: You got it. And I think the work we're doing together on workforce development and training is very effective there.
We've got teammates here from our supply chain. Marti McCurdy here - who runs Spirit Electronics, one of our small businesses in our supply chain here in Arizona - is a great example of investing in that supply chain.
So we want to thank you for those policies.
THE PRESIDENT: I didn't know you made the missiles to the extent. I'm looking outside, and I was very surprised, actually. Boeing - a lot of them had the name Boeing on them. I didn't know that was a great specialty of yours. Tell us about that.
MR. MUILENBURG: Yeah, that's a big area of investment for us as well. So things like the JDAM, which is used significantly around the world. Very effective for our servicemen and women. Small Diameter Bomb is another example. So you saw some of those today.
So again, we're honored to do that on behalf of our U.S. men and women in uniform. We take that job very seriously. And it was mentioned earlier - the importance of our veterans and investing in our veterans. So thank you for what you're doing there. Veterans in the workforce, as well, is a big deal to all of us.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Dennis. You're doing a great job.
MR. MUILENBURG: So you have some great talent there.
THE PRESIDENT: Some incredible things you're coming up with. Thank you very much.
Would anybody like to say anything while we're all gathered together? Anybody have any complaints or any suggestions? (Laughter.) Would anybody - come up with any great ideas?
REPRESENTATIVE LESKO: Mr. President, I would love to say thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Yes, Debbie.
REPRESENTATIVE LESKO: I would love to say thank you. It's so refreshing to have a President that is so strong in supporting the military and the veterans. And we appreciate it. The American public appreciates it. I mean, that's the number-one mission of government, is to protect its people. And you're doing it. Thank you.
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you very much, Debbie. That's really nice. Appreciate it. Anybody? Yes, sir.
MR. BRADY: Mr. President, you know, we do your encryption equipment in the White House.
THE PRESIDENT: Right. That's right.
MR. BRADY: Voice and data. But like I was saying to Secretary Ross - you know, we have - we can only keep a lead so long if all of our stuff is getting stolen the moment we design it. And the cyber threat is not being properly addressed. And there's capabilities, even in the products you have -
THE PRESIDENT: So what would you do about that, Chris? You're right. And they should have been doing this for 15 years, and they haven't been.
MR. BRADY: Yep.
THE PRESIDENT: So what would you do? Your company is a great company. What would you do about it?
MR. BRADY: Well, so we already ship network encryptors. We've embedded capability in those encryptors to pick up the signatures of threats and attacks, even the classified signatures, and store them safely. But we're not turning them on. It's not being used.
THE PRESIDENT: So why don't we get somebody that you would recommend, and let's bring them into government, and let's do it the right way. Because you know, it's such a specific kind of a thing. It's great knowledge involved. You can't just hire somebody off the street and say, "Hey, congratulations, you're in charge of cyber."
MR. BRADY: But the NSA has the capability to understand that. And we have -
THE PRESIDENT: They have some really good people.
MR. BRADY: And we have industry partners, like Viasat and others, that do products that can do things like that. Together we can get that stuff turned on.
When you put this - when you turn it on, it lights up like a Christmas tree. The threats are coming every day. I mean, it's probably more than your normal traffic. And we're getting compromised every day.
THE PRESIDENT: So do we have the equipment? We definitely have the knowledge. Where are we on the scale of knowledge right now, would you say?
MR. BRADY: We're very good at tracking the threats, but we're also very stingy about disseminating the information we already know about the threats.
THE PRESIDENT: Right. Right.
MR. BRADY: That's what the fear is in the intelligence community, is to let some of that information live in these boxes that we believe are secure. But that's the only way we can defend all of our installations against these kinds of attacks.
THE PRESIDENT: Well, I'd like to talk to you about it.
MR. BRADY: I would love to.
THE PRESIDENT: Because I agree with you, it's very important. And there's great knowledge that you have from your company, but there's - and others here have that great knowledge. Very important - cyber. And I hear more and more about cyber. And we have the brainpower. We have potentially - I mean, there's nobody that should be able to event compete with us, with what we have just around this table.
So, Jerry, any of you, if you have any ideas, let us know. We'll do something. Because we're going to do something. We've already started. But I'd rather start it from this table than any other table in the world. Does that make sense? You understand that? We have the brainpower right around this table.
So, good. Thank you, Chris. That's fantastic.
Would you like to say something?
SECRETARY WILSON: Well, sir, I'd leave it to the community leaders here (inaudible).
THE PRESIDENT: You're doing a great job though. I think everyone said it.
SECRETARY WILSON: Our job is to keep the country keep safe, sir. And the F-35 is part of that. We like winning. And the F-35 wins.
