Lockheed Martin has been awarded a fixed-price-incentive firm target modification contract to a previously awarded advance acquisition contract to provide F-35 Conventional Take-Off and Landing (CTOL) aircraft for the US Air Force (USAF).
The Low Rate Initial Production Lot V contract is valued at $4bn, of which the company has received $2.6bn for 21 USAF F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) aircraft.
The new contract follows after the USAF cut three F-35 jets from the total original order of 34 jets in a move to help fund cost overruns associated with retrofits on the first three orders after the Senate Armed Services Committee denied $264m in funding.
The stealthy, supersonic multirole F-35 Lightning II joint strike fighter (JSF) is equipped with an electro-optical targeting system (EOTS) that provides long-range detection and precision targeting.
The F-35 is equipped with advanced efficient, higher-capacity avionics and is designed to replace the A-10, the AV-8 Harrier, the F-16 and the F/A-18 Super Hornet.
The contract also includes the provision of six Carrier Variant (CV) F-35 aircraft to the US Navy and three Short Take-Off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) F-35 aircraft to the US Marine Corps.
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By GlobalDataThe company will also provide ancillary mission equipment and flight test instrumentation for the aircraft, and flight test instrumentation for the UK.
Work on the contract will be carried out at the company’s facilities in Texas, California and Florida, US, as well as in New Hampshire,Baltimore and the UK, and is expected to end by January 2014.
The F-35 aircraft manufacturing team includes Northrop Grumman, BAE Systems, Harris, Pratt & Whitney and Rolls-Royce.
The aircraft have also been ordered by Australia, Canada, Netherlands, the UK, Norway, Turkey, Denmark and Italy.
Image caption: The F-35 is equipped with advanced efficient, higher-capacity avionics and is designed to replace the A-10, the AV-8 Harrier, the F-16 and the F/A-18 Super Hornet.
