A contract has been
awarded to Lockheed Martin to design and develop a variant of its F-35 Lightning
II JSF to meet the needs of an unnamed foreign customer.
Though no information
about the new variant or the end-user has been released, it is almost certain
that it does not refer to a new version of the JSF beyond the existing CTOL
F-35A, STOVL F-35B, or carrier variant (CV) F-35C. Rather, the low value and
short timeline suggest that a previously awarded design and development
contract will be continued.
DOD’s announcement
reads that Lockheed Martin Corp. was awarded a $49,059,494
cost-plus-incentive-fee contract to provide engineering and other related
activities to support the design and development of a Joint Strike Fighter
aircraft variant tailored for an unnamed Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customer,
according to the announcement.
A total of $49,059,494
in FMS funds will be obligated at the time of award, with none of them expiring
at the end of the current fiscal year. The Naval Air Systems Command in
Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
