U.S. Navy awards $43.7M for F-35 mission data lab upgrades
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 [β¦]
Lockheed Martin has broken ground on a factory expansion in Troy, Alabama, that will triple the space it uses to build the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon, the U.S. Air Forceβs first hypersonic missile to enter production. The company held the groundbreaking for the expansion of its Building P-20 on Oct. 27, the day after [β¦]
Lockheed Martin will update the radar warning and electronic support software on Canadaβs CH-148 Cyclone maritime helicopters under a $9.8 million contract awarded through the U.S. Navy, with work running until October 2030. Naval Air Systems Command placed the contract with Lockheedβs Owego, New York, operation on behalf of the Canadian government, which is paying [β¦]
The U.S. Navy has added $13.3 million and 50,000 labor hours to a Lockheed Martin order covering integration of the F-35βs 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 [β¦]
Lockheed Martin plans to open a dedicated maintenance facility in Poland for Patriot PAC-3 interceptors, the company announced Tuesday. The PAC-3 Missile Maintenance Facility is being set up in coordination with the U.S. government and will serve NATO allies that operate the interceptors. The site will repair and recertify the missiles. According to the company, [β¦]
The U.S. Air Force has put its first hypersonic weapon into production, awarding Lockheed Martin a $694 million contract on Sept. 29 to build and field the AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon, or ARRW, a missile the service had planned to abandon just three years ago, the Department of the Air Force announced on Oct. [β¦]
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 Finlandβs second F-35 delivery. JF-509 left [β¦]
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 [β¦]
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, [β¦]
The U.S. Army has awarded Longbow LLC a $419.6 million contract to supply fire control radar systems and post-production support for the AH-64 Apache attack helicopter, keeping work on the Apacheβs distinctive mast-mounted radar going into the next decade. The contract, announced on Oct. 22, 2026, covers the AH-64D and AH-64E versions of the helicopter [β¦]
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 [β¦]
Ukraineβs Defense Minister Evgeniy Khmara and Commander-in-Chief Mykhailo Drapatyi met a Lockheed Martin delegation led by Orlando Sanchez Jr., president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, to press for steady weapons deliveries, more PAC-3 interceptors for Patriot and wider F-16 maintenance across Ukraine, the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said. The talks centered on the F-16, which the ministry [β¦]
Lockheed Martin is promoting the idea of a special version of the F-16 fighter built around Ukraineβs needs, with longer range, a new AESA radar and stronger air defense capabilities, sources at the company told The Defence Blog. The idea is being floated as the U.S. defense giant expands its work with Kyiv, and it [β¦]
L3Harris Technologies opened a new solid rocket motor plant in Camden, Arkansas, on Oct. 20 that is built to double its production of motors for the U.S. Armyβs Guided Multiple Launch Rocket System, the company said in a statement. GMLRS is the precision rocket fired from HIMARS and M270 launchers, and the new site, which [β¦]
U.S. Army infantry soldiers have fired Spike NLOS long-range missiles from a light, air-droppable utility vehicle for the first time, completing 17 engagements in a three-day live-fire demonstration at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, Lockheed Martin said. All of the shots were launched from an Infantry Squad Vehicle β Utility, or ISV-U, a version of the [β¦]
Lithuania is putting U.S.-made AN/TPS-77 Multi-Role Radars into service to watch its airspace, with the truck-mounted Lockheed Martin systems feeding real-time data into NATOβs integrated air and missile defense network, the countryβs Ministry of National Defence said. Lithuania is buying three of the radars under a Foreign Military Sales contract worth about $52.6 million that [β¦]
Lockheed Martin will upgrade the giant assembly stations where F-35 stealth fighters are joined together at Europeβs 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 [β¦]
A newly fielded U.S. Army Typhon missile battery assigned to Europe has fired its first Tomahawk cruise missile, launching it during a live-fire at Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, California, on Sept. 28, 2026, in what the service said was the third Typhon launch within the continental United States. The Mid-Range Capability Battery of [β¦]
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 Pentagonβs daily contract announcement said the modification to an existing contract with Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in Fort Worth, [β¦]