Pentagon, Lockheed agree to decade-long F-35 framework deal for hundreds of jets

A U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II assigned to the 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron (TES), takes off for a mission at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, Aug. 26, 2025. (U.S. Air Force photo by William R. Lewis)

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon and defense giant Lockheed Martin announced today they reached a framework agreement covering a decade’s worth of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter production and sustainment, potentially inaugurating a transformative deal for the stealth jet’s enterprise — if lawmakers sign off and key questions are answered.

The framework covers at least 850 US aircraft over 10 production lots with initial spares and includes 10 years of sustainment and modification kits, according to press releases from the Pentagon and Lockheed . Breaking Defense first reported the two were in talks for a multi-year deal.

The Pentagon in its release said Lockheed will fund $7 billion worth of unspecified initiatives for the F-35 program as part of the agreement. Lockheed’s release says it will keep the tri-variant stealth jet’s production rate steady at 156 aircraft annually.

“We have fundamentally changed how we stabilize the American defense industrial base to produce at speed and scale. This agreement with Lockheed Martin proves it,” Pentagon acquisition chief Michael Duffey said in the Defense Department’s release. “By aligning financial incentives with actual performance, we are ensuring our warfighters are equipped with the lethal capabilities they need to fight and win.”

Lockheed CEO Jim Taiclet said in the company’s release that the framework deal “strengthens the way we can plan and invest in the F-35 enterprise” and that the agreement affords “greater certainty” to “make the upfront investments needed to expand capacity, improve efficiency and build a more resilient supply chain.”

The Pentagon under the Trump administration has pushed numerous framework deals for in-demand weapon systems like munitions in an effort to boost long-term production rates and secure cost savings, officials argue, through greater economies of scale. Yet unlike other frameworks announced by the Pentagon, today’s agreement does not increase the fighter’s manufacturing rate.

The announcements also do not address some key questions, like how much the initiative will cost taxpayers or how much the Pentagon expects to save by using the multi-year format.

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According to Lockheed’s release, the company and the F-35 Joint Program Office “will work to finalize contract terms, pricing and schedules through a formal contract award” if lawmakers grant the requisite authority and accompanying appropriations.

Any decade-long agreement would likely be worth tens of billions of dollars. A recent agreement for two lots of F-35 production included nearly 300 aircraft at a price of $24.3 billion.

Lawmakers are currently mulling multi-year authority for the F-35, which is operated by the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy. The fiscal 2027 defense authorization bill helmed by the Senate Armed Services Committee, for its part, includes language that would permit the Pentagon to enter into multi-year procurement contracts for the F-35. The House version of the bill includes a similar provision, but with some additional guardrails.

For one, the House bill would not authorize multi-year F-35 procurement until the defense secretary certifies that the contract also includes “the full complement of initial spare parts and alternate mission equipment for each aircraft to be procured under the contract.” The Pentagon must also demonstrate that the multi-year contract achieves cost savings of at least 5 percent.

Additionally, neither the Senate nor House version of the bill explicitly authorizes a multi-year sustainment agreement, potentially leaving a key piece of the broader proposal unresolved. And if history is any guide, a deal for the jet’s maintenance could prove a sticking point.

The F-35 program previously explored a multi-year sustainment agreement in the form of a performance-based logistics (PBL) contract spanning five years. But no deal could be reached because officials could not satisfy a congressional requirement to demonstrate that the PBL would either reduce costs or increase readiness.

Another potentially complicating factor is the F-35’s sprawling international profile, though a Lockheed spokesperson said the agreement “will not change the process for production slot allocation” shared among the jet’s buyers and would, if anything, save foreign customers money down the road.

“The Joint Program Office will maintain ownership of the production order for all F-35 customers,” the spokesperson continued. “F-35 international operators are an integral part of the global F-35 fleet, and this agreement will bring the benefit of economies of scale to their future purchase plans.”

The F-35 program is projected to last until the 2080s, and sustainment accounts for a vast portion of its nearly $2 trillion lifecycle cost estimate . Improving the jet’s mission capable rates is a leading focus for the program, as previous government watchdog reports have found that readiness hampered by a lack of depot capacity, shortages of spare parts and insufficient access for military maintainers to the jet’s technical data.

Over 1,300 F-35s have been delivered to date. But over the last two years, many newly delivered jets have been held for training as officials struggle to clear a new upgrade for combat.

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2025年8月26日，一架隶属于美国空军第422测试评估中队（TES）的F-35A“闪电II”战斗机从内华达州内利斯空军基地起飞执行任务。（美国空军照片，摄影：威廉·R·刘易斯）

华盛顿——五角大楼和国防巨头洛克希德·马丁公司今天宣布，他们达成了一项框架协议，涵盖未来十年的F-35联合攻击战斗机的生产和维护，如果立法者批准并且关键问题得到解答，这可能会开启隐形战机产业的变革性交易。

根据五角大楼和洛克希德·马丁公司发布的新闻稿，该框架协议涵盖至少850架美国飞机，分10个生产批次，包含初始备件，并包括10年的维护和改装套件。《防务新闻》率先报道了双方正在就一项多年协议进行谈判。

五角大楼在声明中表示，作为协议的一部分，洛克希德·马丁公司将为F-35项目提供价值70亿美元的未公开资金。洛克希德·马丁公司在声明中表示，将保持这款三型隐形战机的年产量稳定在156架。

“我们从根本上改变了稳定美国国防工业基础的方式，使其能够快速、大规模地生产。与洛克希德·马丁公司的这项协议就证明了这一点，”五角大楼采购主管迈克尔·达菲在国防部发布的新闻稿中表示。“通过将财政激励与实际绩效挂钩，我们确保了我们的作战人员拥有作战和取胜所需的致命能力。”

洛克希德公司首席执行官吉姆·泰克莱特在公司发布的新闻稿中表示，该框架协议“加强了我们规划和投资 F-35 项目的方式”，并且该协议为“进行扩大产能、提高效率和建立更具韧性的供应链所需的前期投资”提供了“更大的确定性”。

特朗普政府领导下的五角大楼已推动多项针对紧缺武器系统（例如弹药）的框架协议，官员们辩称，此举旨在通过更大的规模经济来提高长期生产率并降低成本。然而，与五角大楼宣布的其他框架协议不同，今天达成的这项协议并未提高战斗机的生产速度。

这些公告也没有回答一些关键问题，例如该计划将花费纳税人多少钱，或者五角大楼预计通过采用多年期模式可以节省多少钱。

将供应链武器化，用于生产射程达150公里的液体燃料榴弹炮弹药

这种武器化的目标是将作战人员的需求与研发、测试和评估周期联系起来。

根据洛克希德公司的声明，如果立法者授予必要的授权和相应的拨款，该公司和 F-35 联合项目办公室“将通过正式的合同授予来最终确定合同条款、价格和时间表”。

任何为期十年的协议都可能价值数百亿美元。最近达成的两批F-35战斗机生产协议就包括近300架飞机，总价为243亿美元。

目前，国会正在考虑为F-35战机授予多年采购授权，该战机由空军、海军陆战队和海军共同使用。参议院军事委员会牵头的2027财年国防授权法案中包含一项条款，允许五角大楼签订F-35战机的多年采购合同。众议院版本的法案也包含类似条款，但增加了一些额外的限制条件。

首先，众议院的法案规定，在国防部长确认合同中包含“每架待采购飞机的全部初始备件和备用任务设备”之前，不会授权进行多年期F-35采购。五角大楼还必须证明，这份多年期合同至少能节省5%的成本。

此外，参议院和众议院版本的法案均未明确授权签订多年期维护协议，这可能导致该提案的关键部分悬而未决。而历史经验表明，该战机的维护协议很可能成为谈判的症结所在。

F-35项目此前曾探讨过一项为期五年、以绩效为基础的后勤保障（PBL）合同，但最终未能达成协议。原因是官员们未能满足国会的要求，证明PBL能够降低成本或提高战备水平。

另一个可能使情况变得复杂的因素是 F-35 广泛的国际市场，不过洛克希德公司的一位发言人表示，该协议“不会改变”飞机买家之间共享的生产名额分配流程，而且如果有什么影响的话，将来还会为外国客户省钱。

发言人继续说道：“联合项目办公室将继续拥有所有F-35客户的生产订单。F-35的国际用户是全球F-35机队的重要组成部分，这项协议将为他们未来的采购计划带来规模经济效益。”

F-35项目预计将持续到2080年代，其近2万亿美元的全寿命周期成本估算中，维护保养占据了很大一部分。提高战机的任务执行率是该项目的首要任务，因为此前政府监督机构的报告指出，由于维修能力不足、备件短缺以及军方维护人员难以获取战机的技术数据，战备状态受到阻碍。

迄今为止，美国已交付超过1300架F-35战斗机。但在过去两年里，许多新交付的战机因需要进行训练而被扣留，因为相关部门正努力审批一项新的升级方案，以使其能够投入战斗使用。

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