
Australia is signing up to buy an additional 58 of Lockheed Martin’s [LMT] F-35 Joint Strike Fighter for $11.5 billion, raising the total number to 72, the country’s prime minister, Tony Abbott, said Wednesday. Australia was already lined up for 14 of the fifth-generation stealth fighters, which will start delivering in 2018. Abbott said the country expects to have the entire fleet of six dozen delivered and operational by 2023. “It will ensure our edge as a regional power,” Abbott…