Lockheed awarded $735.7M for F-35 production support

June 11 (UPI) -- The Pentagon announced a modification to a Lockheed Martin contract for materials and support for production of the F-35 Lightning II.

The contract, from Naval Air Systems Command and announced on Friday, is valued at more than $735.7 million and enables Lockheed Martin to provide "long-lead time materials, parts, components, and effort," for F-35 programs within the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps, the Pentagon said.

The contract provides an additional $660.9 million in "economic order quantity funding," for "hardware qualification testing," on the F-35 program.

Work will occur in multiple locations in the United States, as well as Japan and the United Kingdom. The period of performance will expire in December 2019.

The total cumulative value of the contract will be obligated to Boeing at time of award -- funds will be allocated from multiple fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement accounts.

None of the obligated funds will expire at the end of the current fiscal year, the Pentagon said.