A U.S. Marine Corps F-35B Lightning II stealth fighter crashed near Marine Corps Air Station Miramar in California on Friday after the pilot ejected moments before impact.
Lockheed Martin
The F-35 Joint Program Office, which runs the fighter effort from just outside Washington, awarded Lockheed Martin a $1.6 billion spare parts contract last week. It is the largest such deal in the history of the F-35 Lightning II program.
Patria has begun manufacturing F-35 fighter forward fuselages, landing gear doors, and F135 engine assemblies in Finland, and the company said the programme is progressing as planned.
Lockheed Martin Australia has begun construction of a new AUD 85.9 million Air Power Precinct in the Hunter region, marking a major investment in Australia’s future air and missile defence capabilities.
Lockheed Martin has received a contract modification worth approximately $74.2 million to finalise the integration of European-developed weapons onto F-35 fighter aircraft operated by the United Kingdom and Italy.
The US Marine Corps has accepted 6 F-35B jets without radars, fitting ballast in the nose cones to maintain weight and balance. A delayed Northrop Grumman AN/APG-85 radar is the cause, and the Air Force and Navy will face the same situation later this year.
The difference becomes especially clear when comparing the Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor and the Boeing B-52H Stratofortress.
Lockheed Martin wins $35 billion seven-year THAAD contract to quadruple interceptor production for U.S. missile defense.
The US Air Force’s F-35A recorded the highest full mission-capable rate among all F-35 variants in fiscal 2025, yet only 28.5 percent of the jets could perform all assigned missions at any given time, according to a new Government Accountability Office (GAO) report.
A recent demonstration at Edwards Air Force Base (EDW), California, showed the method could update an F-22 Raptor in minutes rather than the months legacy aircraft often wait.