Pentagon shells out $1.4B for services on F-35 air systems

April 30 (UPI) -- The U.S. Navy is shelling out over a billion dollars in a new contract deal with Lockheed Martin for services on already-delivered F-35 air systems.

The deal, announced Monday by the Department of Defense, is valued at more than $1.421 billion under the terms of a cost-plus-incentive-fee contract and taps Lockheed Martin for "recurring logistics services for delivered F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter air systems," according to the Pentagon.

The contract will provide ground maintenance, supply chain management and other logistic and support services.

The Pentagon says that the contract will benefit the U.S. Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, non-Defense Department participants and foreign military sales customers operating F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter aircraft, a fifth-generation stealth fighter slated to replace most of the U.S. fighter fleet, as well as those of allied foreign air forces, over the next decades.

Work on the contract will occur at locations across the United States and England. The contract is expected to be complete in April 2019, according to Naval Air Systems Command, who issued the contract.

The total amount of the contract will be obligated to Lockheed Martin at time of award. The funds will be obligated from fiscal 2018 operations and maintenance funds from the Air Force, Marine Corps and Navy, non-Department of Defense participants and foreign military sales customers, and combined with funding from other accounts, according to the Pentagon.

More than $845.3 million of the obligated funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year.