Tag Archives: F-35A

A conventional takeoff and landing variant of the F-35 multirole aircraft built by Lockheed Martin has achieved initial operational capability status from the government of Australia.

Lockheed Martin has shipped 123 F-35 aircraft in 2020, meeting its revised target number of at least 117 delivered jets amid the COVID-19 pandemic and corresponding delays. The company said Monday it delivered 74 units of the aircraft to the U.S. military, 18 to foreign military sales customers and 31 to international partners this year.

Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Air Force have partnered to develop and implement a virtual reality system for training the service branch’s F-35A aircraft maintenance personnel.

A team consisting of Raytheon and Norwegian aerospace and defense firm Kongsberg expect to conduct a flight test for its Joint Strike Missile on an F-35A fighter jet this year, Breaking Defense reported Wednesday.

Lockheed Martin has received a three-year, $81.9M contract modification from the U.S. Navy to build specific hardware and software capabilities from the Block 4 configuration in support of the F-35 Lightning II aircraft’s developmental flight tests.

A new Mitre study says the U.S. Air Force should expand four additional bases in the Pacific to accommodate operations of up to 24 bombers and 18 tankers as well as procure and field “large magazines of long-range standoff weapons” to counter anti-access/area denial threats, the Air Force Magazine reported Thursday.

Lockheed Martin has proposed to lower the cost of the Department of Defense’s block F-35A purchases from $89.5M per aircraft to less than $80M each, Defense One reported Tuesday.

Lockheed Martin aims to increase the F-35 fighter jet’s air-to-air firepower with a newly-built weapons rack designed to increase payload capacity to six missiles, Popular Mechanics reported Friday. 

Lockheed Martin aims to reduce the price of F-35A fighter jets to less than $80M per unit through a proposed multiyear contract with the Department of Defense's Joint Program Office, USNI News reported Tuesday.

Michele Evans, who assumed the role of executive vice president for Lockheed Martin’s aeronautics business area in October 2018, has discussed the company’s efforts to reduce the price of the F-35 Lightning II aircraft and other plans for the fighter jet program, the Dallas Business Journal reported Wednesday. Lockheed plans to lower the price of the F-35A variant to $80M by 2020, according to the report.

Lockheed Martin has built and delivered 91 F-35 fighter jets to military customers this year, up 40 percent from 2017 deliveries and a 100 percent increase over 2016 production levels. The U.S. Marine Corps received the 91st aircraft, an F-35B short takeoff/vertical landing variant, at a USMC air station in Beaufort, S.C., the company said Thursday. …

Lockheed Martin has received a potential $83.1M contract from Naval Air Systems Command to develop, integrate, certify and test a “dual capable” aircraft system for the U.S. Air Force F-35A jets. The Air Force will obligate $24.6M in fiscal 2019 research, development, test and evaluation funds at the time of award, the …

Lockheed Martin and the F-35 joint program office have wrapped a series of durability, drop and static tests designed to validate the F-35 aircraft’s resilience and strength in combat environments and support maintenance forecasting and fleet management operations. The fighter aircraft has an average service lifetime of 8K hours and …

Lockheed Martin has issued a request for information as it considers whether to recompete the F-35 aircraft’s communications, navigation and identification equipment and electronic warfare platform in order to reduce the systems’ lifecycle costs, Defense News reported July 10. “We’re evaluating right now the RFI responses and determining if it’s a …

Lockheed Martin has delivered another three F-35A aircraft for the training of Australian pilots at the Luke Air Force Base. The Australian government intends to procure 72 F-35A Lightning II aircraft and retire its fleet of 71 aging F/A-18A/B Classic Hornets, the country’s defense ministry said Monday. Australia’s defense minister …