The F-35 office has concluded a new contract for servicing fighter-generation fighters F-35 Lighting II with Lockheed Martin. Under the terms of the agreement, the cost of flights of aircraft that are in service with the US Armed Forces will be reduced by 2023 fiscal year. It is reported by the portal FlightGlobal.
Contract obliges to reduce the cost of the F-35A flight hour to 30 thousand dollars, which is 10.7 percent less operating costs caused by the past agreement. Cost reduction is part of an agreement on servicing aircraft concluded in 2021.
Flight Global emphasizes that the new contract brings close to Lockheed Martin to the implementation of the intention to reduce the cost of the F-35A flight hour to 25 thousand dollars in 2025. In 2020, this amount was 33.6 thousand dollars.
Representatives of Lockheed Martin claim that the combat task factor of the F-35 aircraft around the world increased to 70 percent, and the cost of the summer hour decreased by 44 percent over the past five years.
Previously, US lawsors supported the amendment to the draft law on the defense policy, which tied the number of purchased aircraft to the cost of their maintenance. So, the operators will be able to purchase the planned amount of F-35 only after reaching the target service value indicators.
In the summer, the DRIVE edition reported the degradation of the F-35 engines. Wearing the protective coating blades of the engine rotor F135 discovered in 46 fighters.