Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT) and the Department of Defense have reached a “handshake agreement†for the company to build 157 low rate initial production lot 12 F-35 fighter aircraft with options for LRIP lots 13 and 14.
Ellen Lord, undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment at DoD and a 2019 Wash100 winner, said in a statement published Monday the $35B agreement includes the delivery of 437 LRIP F-35s for lots 12 to 14 in support of U.S. service branches, allies and foreign military sales clients.
Lord said the handshake deal will enable DoD to realize an estimated 8.8 percent savings for the F-35A aircraft from lot 11 to lot 12 and an average of 15 percent unit recurring flyaway price reduction across all variants of the fighter jet from the 11th batch to the 14th batch.
“The F-35 joint program office team and our industry partner will now work to finalize the required statutory certification details with a planned formal award by August,†she added.
“The unit price for all three F-35 variants was reduced and the agreement will include an F-35A unit cost below $80M in Lot 13, exceeding the Pentagon and Lockheed Martin’s long-standing cost reduction commitment earlier than planned,†said Greg Ulmer, vice president and general manager for the F-35 program at Lockheed.
