Lockheed Martin wins $920 mn contract for production of 94 F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft.

Lockheed Martin is being awarded a $920,350,132 advance acquisition contract for long lead time, materials, parts, components, and effort for the manufacture and delivery of 94 F-35 Lightning II low rate initial production aircraft. This contract provides for 78 F-35A aircraft for the Air Force (44), the government of Italy (2), the government of Turkey (2) ; the government of Australia (8); the government of Norway (6); and for various foreign military sales customers (16). In addition, this contract provides for the procurement of 14 F-35B aircraft for the Marine Corps (9), the government of Britain (3) and the government of Italy (2), as well as 2 F-35C aircraft for the Navy and Marine Corps. Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (55 percent); El Segundo, California (15 percent); Warton, United Kingdom (10 percent); Orlando, Florida (5 percent); Nashua, New Hampshire (5 percent); Baltimore, Maryland (5 percent); and Cameri, Italy (5 percent), and is expected to be completed in May 2019.

This contract combines purchase for Foreign Military Sales program customers ($352,102,228; 38 percent); the Air Force ($227,666,000; 25 percent); non-U.S. Department of Defense participants ($207,086,904; 22 percent); and the Navy/Marine Corps ($133,495,000; 15 percent). The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II is a family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole fighters undergoing testing and final development by the United States. The fifth generation combat aircraft is designed to perform ground attack, aerial reconnaissance, and air defense missions. The F-35 has three main models: the F-35A conventional takeoff and landing (CTOL) variant, the F-35B short take-off and vertical-landing (STOVL) variant, and the F-35C carrier-based Catapult Assisted Take-Off But Arrested Recovery (CATOBAR) variant.