Jabberwocky
Staff Sergeant
When you think about it, thirty years ago the US had several competing aircraft firms. For the Lightweight Fighter Program (LWF) that would result in the F-16s that Ukraine desperately wants, five manufacturers – Boeing, General Dynamics, Lockheed, Northrop, and Vought – submitted proposals. As an aside, Northrop's submission the VF-17 would become the McDonell Douglas F/A-18. For the F-16's successor, the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program, only two were left to submit bids, Lockheed and Boeing (having acquired McDonnell Douglas in 1997). And next year, Lockheed Martin is expected to acquire Boeing - meaning the entire fixed wing air power of the USAF, USN and USMC will be supplied by one single firm. At that point, Lockheed can triple the price of F-35 components, who's going to stop them?
Ref the bolded bit, that's not happening. It was an April fools from some aviation blogger, which got some traction among the meme stock crowd and conspiracy theorists (which unsurprisingly have significant overlap).