Lockheed Martin [LMT] received a more than $622 million contract on Aug. 17 for “program management, non-recurring unique requirements, and training in support of integration efforts for the government of Germany” for the company’s F-35 Lightning II fighter, according to a DoD contracts announcement.
“Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (70 percent); Orlando, Florida (15 percent); and Greenville, South Carolina (15 percent), and is expected to be completed in December 2027,” per DoD.
Last December, Germany became the ninth foreign military sales nation
to join the F-35 program when the country signed a contract for 35 Lockheed Martin F-35As (Defense Daily, Dec. 16, 2022). The agreement includes engines, mission equipment, spare and replacement parts, technical and logistic support, training and armament, Lockheed Martin said. “By the 2030s, it is expected that over 550 F-35s will work together from more than 10 European countries, including two full U.S. F-35 squadrons at RAF Lakenheath,” the company said.
In July last year, the State Department approved Germany’s $8.4 billion buy of the 35 F-35As and related equipment, including munitions.
Less than a month after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 last year, Germany announced its plan to buy the 35 F-35As to replace the Tornado fighters in the German fleet by 2030 (Defense Daily, March 14, 2022).
In addition to Germany’s, Finland’s and Switzerland’s F-35 contract signings last year, the State Department in June approved a $5.62 billion deal with the Czech Republic for 24 F-35s and related equipment to replace that country’s Saab Gripen fighters.
Lockheed Martin expects to deliver between 100 and 120 F-35s this year, including the first aircraft in the Tech Refresh (TR) 3 upgrades, which host updated core processing power, memory capacity and computational core, Lockheed Martin CEO James Taiclet said during a company’s earnings call last month. Delivery of the TR3 aircraft could slip into early 2024, he cautioned.
So far, there have been 58 flight tests of the F-35 in the TR3 configuration, including a successful flight in May with the most recent software release, he said (Defense Daily, July 18). The updated software provides upgraded data links, a new electro-optical targeting system and radar.
Upcoming F-35 TR3 testing will include multi-aircraft missions, sensor fusion and additional weapons with the next software release, Taiclet said.
In April, the Pentagon awarded Lockheed Martin an almost $7.8 billion contract for 126 F-35 fighters in Lot 17, including 43 F-35As for the U.S. Air Force, eight for Finland, seven for Italy, six each for the Netherlands and Poland, four each for Japan and Belgium, and three for Denmark; 26 F-35Bs–15 for the U.S. Marine Corps, seven for the United Kingdom, two for Italy, and two for Japan; and 19 F-35Cs–13 for the U.S. Navy and six for the Marine Corps (Defense Daily, Apr. 28).