Lockheed Martin delivers 200th F-35 fighter

The Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) programme passed a milestone in early 2017 with the delivery of the 200th aircraft, it was announced on 12 January.

The milestone saw the second F-35A for Japan (AX-2) delivered to the international training fleet at Luke Air Force Base (AFB) in Arizona.

It has taken Lockheed Martin and the Joint Program Office (JPO) nearly six years to reach the 200-aircraft milestone since the first aircraft was handed over to the US Air Force (USAF) in May 2011. In that time, the programme has logged 75,000 flight hours while training more than 380 pilots and 3,700 maintainers.

Under the official programme-of-record, Australia has a requirement for 100 F-35As; Canada for 65 F-35As (subject to a relaunched procurement process); Denmark for 30 F-35As; Israel for 33 F-35As; Italy for 60 F-35As and 30 F-35Bs; Japan for 42 F-35As; the Netherlands for 37 F-35As; Norway for 52 F-35As; the Republic of Korea for 40 FMS F-35As; Turkey for 100 F-35As; the United Kingdom for 138 F-35Bs; the US Air Force (USAF) for 1,763 F-35As; the US Marine Corps for 353 F-35Bs and 67 F-35Cs; and the US Navy for 260 F-35Cs.

The latest contract announcement for Lot 10 production, awarded in November 2016, was valued at USD7.2 billion for 90 aircraft. When long-lead contracts are considered also, the approximate unit cost for a Lot 10 aircraft (excluding engines) is USD91.4 million (averaged across the three different variants). Lockheed Martin is aiming to get the unit cost of the F-35A (the cheapest variant) down to USD80-85 million by 2019 under the Blueprint for Affordability effort.

http://www.janes.com/article/66908/lockheed-martin-delivers-200th-f-35-fighter