Home Air Lockheed gets $7.6B to build 129 Lot 15 F-35 fighters

Lockheed gets $7.6B to build 129 Lot 15 F-35 fighters

F-35 final assembly
Photo: Lockheed Martin

The US Navy has awarded Lockheed Martin a $7.6 billion contract modification to produce 129 Lot 15 F-35 fifth-generation fighters in all variants.

The contract includes 49 F-35A (conventional take-off) aircraft for the US Air Force, three F-35B (short take-off and vertical landing) aircraft and 10 F-35C (aircraft carrier variant) aircraft for the Marine Corps.

Also included are 15 F-35Cs for the US Navy, 32 F-35A aircraft and four F-35B aircraft for non-US Department of Defense participants, and 16 F-35A aircraft for foreign customers.

The Pentagon contract announcement said work under this modification is expected to be completed in October 2024.

In a separate notice, the Pentagon said Lockheed Martin was also being awarded a $53.4 million modification for “continued engineering and other related activities in support of the design and development of a Joint Strike Fighter aircraft variant tailored for an unspecified foreign military sales (FMS) customer.”

The Pentagon did not reveal the customer but it is worth noting that Israel is working on a special variant of the F-35 that will allow the Israeli Air Force to uniquely integrate certain indigenous technologies into the F-35. Israel received the first of these one-off airframes in 2020.

According to the latest Lockheed Martin factsheet on the F-35 program, the company has delivered over 825 airframes to nine nations. The global fleet has amassed over 550,000 flight hours with over 323,000 sorties.