Pentagon awards contract to Lockheed Martin for F-35 fleet support.

The F-35 Joint Program Office has awarded the Lockheed Martin industry team a $1.4 billion sustainment contract to support operations for the F-35 fleet around the globe.

More than 280 F-35 "Lightning II" aircraft have been delivered and are now operating from 15 bases around the globe. (Picture source : USAF)

The annual contract funds sustainment support activities for aircraft currently in the fleet, as well as building enterprise capacity to support the future fleet of more than 3,000 F-35 "Lightning II" aircraft. Activities include air system maintenance; pilot and maintainer training; depot activation; sustaining engineering; Automatic Logistics Information System (ALIS) support, data analytics and predictive health management; supply chain logistics and more.

More than 280 F-35 aircraft have been delivered and are now operating from 15 bases around the globe. More than 580 pilots and 5,600 maintainers have been trained and the F-35 fleet has surpassed more than 130,000 cumulative flight hours.

The F-35 weapons system reliability continues to improve, and newer aircraft are averaging greater than 60 percent availability with some operational squadrons consistently at or above 70 percent availability.

The 2018 Annualized sustainment contract will cover sustainment services through April 30, 2019.