Bethesda, Maryland. 05 February 2017. The U.S. Department of Defense and Lockheed Martin reached an agreement in principle on the lowest priced F-35 Lightning II aircraft to date marking the first time the price for an F-35A is below $100M. Deliveries of 90 aircraft begin in early 2018.

Known as Low-Rate Initial Production Lot 10 (LRIP-10), the contract is for 90 stealth fighter aircraft and represents more than a 60 percent price reduction for the F-35A variant since the first LRIP-1 contract. The F-35B and F-35C variants price were also substantially reduced. In total the Lot 10 contract represents a $728 million reduction when compared to Lot 9.

“The LRIP-10 contract is a good and fair deal for the taxpayers, the U.S. Government, allies, and Industry,” said Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan, F-35 Program Executive Officer. “We continue to work with Industry to drive costs out of the program.”

The LRIP 10 contract includes 55 jets for the U.S. Services and 35 jets for international partners and foreign military sales customers.  Of these 44 F-35A  are for the U.S. Air Force, 9 F-35B for the U.S. Marine Corps, 2 F-35C for the U.S. Navy, 3 F-35B for UK, 6 F-35A for Norway, 8 F-35A for Australia, 2 F-35A for Turkey, 4 F-35A for Japan, 6 F-35A for Israel and 6 F-35A for South Korea.

The F-35A variant comprises approximately 85 percent of the program of record. The F-35A unit price in LRIP-10, including aircraft, engine and fee, is roughly seven percent lower than the previous LRIP-9 contract. Over the past two procurement lots (LRIP-9 and 10), the price of the F-35A has dropped 12 percent.

The Lot 10 contract represents a $728 million reduction in total price when compared to Lot 9. The approximate per variant unit prices, including jet, engine and fee are  for F-35A: $94.6 million (7.3% reduction from Lot 9),  for F-35B: $122.8 million (6.7% reduction from Lot 9) and for F-35C $121.8 million (7.9% reduction from Lot 9).

“With initiatives like Blueprint for Affordability and the natural learning curve, we are substantially bringing the cost of each aircraft down and at the same time the F-35 program will continue to add thousands of additional jobs to the U.S. economy as we increase production year over year,” said Jeff Babione, Lockheed Martin F-35 Vice President and General Manager. In addition to procuring the air vehicles, this contract funds manufacturing-support equipment and ancillary mission equipment.

In a statement the company said, “President Trump’s personal involvement in the F-35 program accelerated the negotiations and sharpened our focus on driving down the price. The agreement was reached in a matter of weeks and represents significant savings over previous contracts. This is a good deal for the American taxpayer, our country, our company and our suppliers.”