Pentagon's next F-35 production deal coming 'within weeks'

Marina Malenic, Washington, DC - IHS Jane's Defence Weekly
09 June 2014



Key Points
Lockheed Martin expects another price drop in the upcoming deal
The Pentagon's programme manager has said he wants price decreases in each lot
Lockheed Martin expects to sign its eighth low-rate initial production (LRIP 8) contract with the Pentagon for 43 more F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighters in the coming weeks, company executives said on 9 June.

"We're exchanging offers," Orlando Carvalho, executive vice-president of Lockheed Martin's aeronautics division, told IHS Jane's . "I'd like to believe that we can get to a handshake by … the end of the month," he said, adding that a final contract is likely to emerge within the next two months.

Lockheed Martin submitted its initial LRIP 8 proposal in December 2013. In April US Air Force Lieutenant General Christopher Bogdan, the Pentagon's F-35 acquisition chief, said he hoped to sign a contract by the end of May.

Gen Bogdan has said he wants the price of the aircraft to decrease in each production lot. Carvalho said negotiations are on track to meet that expectation in LRIP 8 but declined to comment in detail on the price.

"The goal has been for the price of the aircraft to come down lot over lot," he said. "I believe that will be the case again."

Carvalho said he is hopeful that Canada will select the F-35 to replace its Boeing CF-18 fleet following an 18-month review that is expected to conclude this month.

Furthermore, Carvalho said that development of '2B software' needed to deploy the F-35B, which the US Marine Corps wants to have ready approximately one year from now, is nearing completion.

"Flight tests will continue through the end of the year," he said, at which point 2B development will be complete. He added that 3F software, the final version that will deploy on the US Air Force's F-35A aircraft, began flight testing last month and is on schedule.

Janes IHS