April 3 (UPI) — Lockheed Martin received a $581 million contract to supply common F-35 spares for each of the 5th-generation aircraft’s variants.
The contract includes deliveries for the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy, which have each respectively procured the F-35A, F-35B and F-35C. The deal also includes foreign military sales.
Work is scheduled to be performed at various locations including Texas, California, Florida, New York and Britain. The U.S. Department of Defense expects all tasks to be complete by April 2021.
Lockheed Martin received all funding at the time of the contract award in the form of foreign military sales and fiscal 2017 aircraft procurement funds. $63 million will expire at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command is the contracting activity.
The F-35 Lightning II is a 5th-generation multirole fighter designed to balance several warfighting capabilities including stealth, electronic warfare and air superiority. The plane was built to replace a number of legacy aircraft for the U.S. Armed Forces, including the F-16, F-18 and A-10.
The U.S.-led procurement effort is also supported by Denmark, Britain, Israel, Japan, South Korea, Norway, Italy, Australia and the Netherlands.
