Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and the U.S. Defense Department have struck a $4 billion agreement for the company to build 43 additional F-35 jets, Reuters reported Thursday.
Andrea Shalal writes the agreement for the F-35 program’s eighth batch seeks to lower the fighter’s cost by as much as 3 percent and to provide F-35s for U.S. partner nations.
Twenty-seven planes would go to the U.S. Air Force and the cost of each USAF fighter variant could decrease by almost 4 percent under the new contract, according to Reuters.
Lockheed company has handed over 23 out of 36 F-35s that were scheduled for delivery to the U.S. military this year, according to Shalal’s article.
Shalal reports that DoD and Pratt & Whitney closed on a contract for the seventh batch of F-35 aircraft engines earlier this month and the price-per-engine has dropped by 4.5 percent.
