Lockheed awarded $155M on two contracts for F-35 work

March 1 (UPI) -- Lockheed Martin has been awarded two contracts worth more than $155 million for work on the F-35 fighter fleets of the United States and foreign customers.

The Department of Defense announced on Wednesday that it has awarded a $148.7 million contract for logistics services for all branches of the U.S. military and foreign customers, as well as $7.4 million for the sustainment of the U.S. Marines' F-35s in California and Japan.

The larger of the two contracts is a modification for logistics services for delivered F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter aircraft for the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, non-Department of Defense and foreign military sales customers. Work includes ground maintenance activities, depot activation activities, Automatic Logistics Information System operations and maintenance, reliability, maintainability and health management implementation and support, supply chain management and other activities.

Work is projected to be completed by April 18 at the company's site in Fort Worth, Texas, as well as Orlando, Fla., El Segundo, Calif., Greenville, S.C., and Warton, England.

The modified contract is funded with fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement and fiscal 2018 operation and maintenance funds, including $66.6 million from the Air Force, $29.6 million from the Marine Corps and $18.9 million from the Navy, in addition to $25.3 million from non-DOD participants and $8.3 million from foreign military sales customers.

The second contract is for sustainment services in support of F-35 aircraft at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, Japan, and Naval Air Station Lemoore in California. Work will be performed at both sites and is expected to be completed by April.

All Navy funds for the sustainment contract were awarded from Fiscal 2017 aircraft procurement funding.

In January 2017, the U.S. Marines relocated the first operational F-35B Lightning squadron from a base in Arizona to Japan. The marine branch plans to have the F-35 replace F/A-18 Hornets, A-10 Thunderbolts and various other aircraft.

The F-35B is a variant of the fifth generation fighter built for the U.S. Marine Corps that combines short takeoff and vertical landing abilities with stealth capabilities.