WASHINGTON \u2013 The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin have come to an agreement on the tenth lot of F-35 joint strike fighters, with the per-plane cost on the most common F-35A model dropping below $100 million for the first time.
Trump on Monday claimed that he had gotten the price of the F-35 down by $600 million, a drop analysts were quick to point out was in the works before his election. But in what may be a savvy political move, Lockheed has not been shy about embracing Trump\u2019s claim, noting in a statement that “President Trump\u2019s personal involvement in the F-35 program accelerated the negotiations and sharpened our focus on driving down the price.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the widespread agreement from the aerospace sector that the costs were coming down regardless of Trump’s intervention, Spicer directly gave credit to Trump for the deal, saying, “Through the president’s intervention, a total of 90 planes — for a lot of 90 planes, 55 were purchased for the U.S. military that added up to a total of $455 million savings for U.S. taxpayers from the previous lot with an average cost reduction of 7.5 percent. Another big win that the president has delivered on for U.S. taxpayers.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The contract, known as Low Rate-Initial Production lot 10 (LRIP 10), covers production for 90 of the stealth fighters. The Pentagon says the cost per plane represents more than a 60 percent price decrease for the conventional-takeoff-and-landing F-35A variant since the first LRIP contract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For LRIP 10, the per-plane price of an F-35A model sits at $94.6 million (7.3% reduction from LRIP 9), an F-35B jump-jet model used by the U.S. Marine Corps sits at $122.8 million (6.7% reduction from LRIP 9), and an F-35C carrier version is at $121.8 million (7.9% reduction from LRIP 9).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As befits the largest overall customer for the stealth fighter, the U.S. Air Force makes up the majority of the procurement in this lot, but it also features an increasing number of international customers. Deliveries from this lot will begin in early 2018. Overall, the lot is made up of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In total, the Lot 10 contract represents a $728 million reduction when compared to Lot 9. If Trump\u2019s influence can be felt anywhere, it may be in the speed of the contract negotiation \u2013 Lockheed fought hard against the Pentagon\u2019s cost goals in LRIP 9, to the point that the Pentagon unilaterally forced a contract on the company.<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The deal is a $728 million drop from the previous lot of jets. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":59401,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":7,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[7,11,48],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3378],"class_list":["post-52301","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-air","category-global","category-the-americas"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"J73XFS7IUJDLHLYJ4KEJBG2PXM","arc_canonical_url":"\/air\/2017\/02\/03\/pentagon-lockheed-reach-agreement-on-f-35-contract-for-90-jets\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n