Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and the Defense Department have closed on a new contract for the fifth batch of F-35 fighter jets, Reuters reports.
The new agreement is worth $3.8 billion for the 32 jets including 22 conventional takeoff and landing variants for the Air Force, three short-takeoff-and-vertical variants for the Marine Corps and seven carrier-based variants for the Navy.
David Alexander reports each Air Force variant jet is valued between $107 million each under this new deal, 4 percent less than the last deal that priced each of those jets at nearly $111.6 million each.
Loren Thompson, a defense consultant and industry analysts, wrote in a blog post Friday the Air Force’s variant should cost $64 million per jet by the 10th lot if the increase in production stays on schedule.
[...] company recently signed a $4 billion contract with the Pentagon for the F-35 program’s fifth batch of [...]