Airmen assigned to the 34th Fighter Squadron and Fighter Generation Squadron perform pre-flight checks on F-35A Lightning IIs during an agile combat employment exercise at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, March 28, 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman Keagan Lee)
WASHINGTON — The Pentagon has awarded Lockheed Martin a roughly $11.8 billion contract to continue production of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, as the two parties inch toward finalizing an agreement for the stealth fighter.
In a contract announcement posted tonight, the Pentagon said the award covers 145 copies of the tri-variant fighter between the US Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy as well as foreign customers. The contract is undefinitized, meaning dollar values and quantities could change as negotiations continue, and only covers production lot 18 of the stealth fighter.
Lockheed referred questions to the Pentagon. Russ Goemaere, a spokesperson for the F-35 Joint Program Office, told Breaking Defense that the Pentagon aims to finalize the lot 18 contract in the spring.
Additionally, Goemaere said officials expect to similarly issue an undefinitized contract for lot 19 production when the fiscal 2025 budget is approved — which may not occur until March at the earliest, following a last-minute, stopgap measure lawmakers passed today.
After originally aiming to reach an agreement last year for production lots 18 and 19, the Pentagon and Lockheed have remained at an impasse amid inflation and other challenges. The parties reached a “handshake” deal for the two lots in November — though the announcement did not share quantities or prices — and a Lockheed official later said the program may first move forward with an undefinitized contract as talks continued.
Getting a contract award was critical, Lockheed officials have previously said, to provide a cash injection for the program that the company resorted to partially funding out of pocket to ensure production could continue smoothly.
The F-35 has also been a target of top Trump ally Elon Musk in recent weeks, who is set to co-lead a “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) commission that could recommend cuts to government spending. Musk has called officials “idiots” for continuing to build the jet, while DOGE co-lead Vivek Ramaswamy recently advocated for shifting funds away from manned fighters and into other platforms like drones — raising questions of the Joint Strike Fighter’s fate under the new administration.
Yet the jet still has defenders. Outgoing Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, who has long been critical of the F-35 program’s many problems, hit back at Musk’s comments Thursday, arguing that the US should continue to buy and upgrade the stealth fighter.
