U.S. DoD Orders 255 Lockheed Martin F-35 Military Combat Aircraft in $22.7B Deal

November 16, 2018

Courtney E. Howard

In 2015, an individual piloted a Lockheed Martin F-35 Lighting II aircraft – seen here flying in formation – on a simulator using brain-computer interface. (Image source: USAF)

Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co., part of Lockheed Martin Corp., in Fort Worth, Texas, won a $22.7 billion contract from the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) to deliver 255 of its F-35 fifth-generation military combat aircraft.

The contract modification to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price advanced acquisition contract (N00019-17-C-0001) is valued at $22,712,874,822 for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II family of single-seat, single-engine, all-weather stealth multirole fighters designed to perform ground-attack and air-superiority missions. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.

This modification provides for the production and delivery of:

106 F-35 aircraft for the U.S. services (64 F-35As Air Force; 26 F-35Bs Marine Corps; 16 F-35Cs Navy);
89 F-35s for non-Department of Defense (DoD) participants (71 F-35As, 18 F-35 Bs); and
60 F-35s for Foreign Military Sales customers (60 F-35As).

The U.S. aircraft quantities are for the Lot 12 program of record plus fiscal 2018/fiscal 2019 aircraft quantity congressional adds.

Read more: Peruse SAE International's extensive portfolio of technical information about the F-35 military aircraft.

Work will be performed in:

Fort Worth, Texas (57 percent);
El Segundo, California (14 percent);
Warton, United Kingdom (9 percent);
Cameri, Italy (4 percent);
Orlando, Florida (4 percent);
Nashua, New Hampshire (3 percent);
Baltimore, Maryland (3 percent);
San Diego, California (2 percent);
Nagoya, Japan (2 percent); and
various locations outside the continental U.S. (2 percent).

Work is expected to be completed in March 2023.

Read more: First F-35 crash; pilot safe

Fiscal 2018 and 2019 aircraft procurement funds (Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy) in the amount of:

$3,505,522,468 (59 percent);
non-DoD participant funds in the amount of $1,578,531,164 (26 percent); and
Foreign Military Sales funds in the amount of $916,667,000 (15 percent).

A total of $6,000,720,632 will be obligated at time of award, none of which will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.

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Courtney E. Howard is editorial director and content strategist at SAE International, Aerospace Products Group. Contact her by e-mail at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..