Lockheed Martin stated Monday it had reached its 2019 goal to deliver 131 F-35 combat planes to the U.S.A and its allies, as the protection contractor built 47% additional jets this year.
The world’s largest defense contractor delivered a complete of 134 of the stealthy jets this year and objectives to deliver 141 F-35s in 2020.
A common variation of the jet, the F-35A, now costs $77.9 million, beating its purpose of lowering the price to below $80 million a year sooner than expected.
The F-35 program, which makes up around 25% of Lockheed’s annual revenue, has long geared toward expanding the line to over 3,000 jets and bringing the unit price of the F-35A below $80 million via efficiencies obtained by bulk orders.
Earlier this year, Pentagon introduced pricing details for its settlement with Lockheed that lowers the cost of the F-35 jets it plans to buy by 2022 by 12.7%, which can encourage other countries to purchase the warplane.
In 2019, international deliveries soared 43% to 30 aircraft for international associate nations.
More U.S. partners have been eyeing a purchase of the stealthy jet along with Finland, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
The F-35 comes in three configurations: the A-model for the U.S. Air Force and U.S. allies, an F-35 B-model which may handle short takeoffs and vertical landings and carrier-variant F-35C aircraft for the U.S. Navy.
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