Lockheed Martin will upgrade the operating systems running the F-35 Lightning II reprogramming laboratories, which build the threat data the fighter needs for combat missions, under a $43.7 million contract modification the U.S. Navy announced on Oct. 28. Eighty percent of the work will take place in Eglin, Florida, and the remaining 20% in Fort […]

The U.S. Navy has added $13.3 million and 50,000 labor hours to a Lockheed Martin order covering integration of the F-35’s upgraded F135 engine core and the move of a new power and cooling system for the fighter into preliminary design. Naval Air Systems Command announced the cost-plus-fixed-fee, level-of-effort modification on Oct. 27, definitizing an […]

Two more F-35A Lightning II stealth fighters arrived in Finland on Oct. 23, 2026, landing at the Lapland Air Wing in Rovaniemi at 5:56 p.m. and bringing the number of Finnish F-35s in the country to four, the Finnish Defence Forces said. The jets, JF-509 and JF-511, made up Finland’s second F-35 delivery. JF-509 left […]

The Royal Canadian Air Force has taken delivery of its first two CF-35A stealth fighters, the Canadian version of the Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II, at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, the service announced. The jets will stay at Luke, a major U.S. Air Force training base for F-35 pilots from the United States […]

Lockheed Martin has received a $114.6 million order to redesign two key navigation systems on the F-35 Lightning II, the GPS electronic unit and the NAV100 inertial navigation system, replacing electronic parts that are going out of production so the stealth fighter can keep rolling off the line. The cost-plus-fixed-fee order, announced on Oct. 23, […]

The U.S. Department of War and Lockheed Martin have agreed on a framework for a 10-year F-35 production and sustainment deal that covers 850 aircraft for the United States, along with spare parts, modification kits and international orders across production Lots 21 through 30. The framework keeps F-35 production at 156 aircraft a year and […]

The U.S. Air Force plans to grow its fighter force to 1,509 combat-coded jets by 2035, with the F-35 becoming its most numerous fighter and the new F-47 taking over from the F-22, under a revised force structure plan the service sent to Congress on Oct. 16. Lt. Gen. David Tabor, deputy chief of staff […]

Lockheed Martin will upgrade the giant assembly stations where F-35 stealth fighters are joined together at Europe’s only F-35 factory in Cameri, Italy, a plant that now builds jets not just for Italy but for the Netherlands, Poland and Switzerland. The work is covered by a $9.4 million contract modification announced by the U.S. Department […]

An unnamed foreign government is paying Lockheed Martin another $18.8 million to develop and integrate a version of the F-35 fighter jet built to its own specifications, the U.S. Department of War said on Oct. 15. The Pentagon’s daily contract announcement said the modification to an existing contract with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth, […]