F-35, who will be the anonymous customer of the new contract awarded to Lockheed Martin? The hypothesis
The Pentagon awarded Lockheed Martin a $ 49 million contract to design and develop a new variant of the F-35 stealth jet for an unnamed ally. Here are facts and hypotheses
An anonymous F-35 customer is getting a new variant of the fifth generation fighter made by Lockheed Martin.
The Pentagon awarded the defense giant a $ 49 million contract to design and develop a variant of the F-35 "tailored to an unspecified foreign military sales (FMS) customer." The Defense Department announced Monday.
Lockheed Martin will perform engineering work and other activities related to the design and development of a new variant of the aircraft as part of the five-year project, the Department of Defense said.
Although the Fms client has not been identified, currently all clients of the Joint Strike Fighter program receive the standard variants, with the exception of Israel, which has its own variant called the F-35 Adir.
The question then arises as to who the custom F-35 is intended for.
All the details.
LOCKHEED MARTIN WORKING ON THE NEW F-35 VARIANT
“The works will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (77%); Redondo Beach, California (14%); Orlando, Florida (6%); Baltimore, Maryland (1%); Owego, New York (1%) and Samlesbury, United Kingdom (1%) ".
Completion is expected in December 2026.
THE ASSUMPTIONS ABOUT THE "ANONYMOUS" CUSTOMER
“It seems highly unlikely that the new variant of the F-35 will target a new customer not previously announced. It would be very unusual for the US to award a contract to develop a variant of the F-35 for a customer who has not already agreed to purchase the aircraft, ”comments The Drive . "However, a NATO customer is probably less likely, considering that a truly bespoke variant would run counter to interoperability requirements within the alliance."
Furthermore, The Drive also suggests that the new contract could be for the continuation of the work already underway, which could concern Israel.
Israel and Singapore are both possible candidates for the mystery contract.
In 2018, the company was awarded a contract to develop Israel-specific modifications as part of the Block 3F + manufacturing effort. The planned works will last until the end of this year. This new contract could serve to extend that schedule, according to The Drive .
Singapore has ordered an initial batch of just four F-35Bs due to be delivered in 2026. The latter may seek to incorporate some of the same electronic warfare and / or weaponry systems Israel is installing into its F-35s, which would continue. an established military relationship between these two countries.
DOES THE AGREEMENT CONCERN THE LATEST CUSTOMERS?
However, Steve Trimble, director of defense at Aviation Week , pointed out that he thinks the work may be strictly limited to perhaps a handful of avionics reviews as requested by an existing client.
But which are the last countries to have bought the fighter?
If this month the UAE suspended talks with the United States for the purchase of 50 F-35 fighters, other countries have chosen Lockheed Martin's aircraft.
In December Finland announced that it had selected the F-35A for its next fighter aircraft. Helsinki plans to purchase 64 F-F35As.
Furthermore, he has already stated that his aircraft will have some significant differences from other F-35As. According to the Finnish Air Force, "the solution includes maintenance capabilities to be built in Finland, as well as replacement components and replaceable assemblies for exceptional circumstances that are under the exclusive national control of Finland, as well as participation in the multinational maintenance network".
MAYBE SWITZERLAND?
Finally, another non-aligned F-35 customer, Switzerland, may also be looking to incorporate some special modifications into its jets, and change the design.
Last year Switzerland decided that the new fighter planes it will equip its military aviation will be the F-35 A Lightning made by Lockheed Martin .
Over the course of the program, Bern plans to spend up to CHF 6 billion (US $ 6.5 billion) to purchase 36 conventional F-35A take-off and landing models to replace its old Hornet fleet. This was announced by the Swiss government last June.
“However, both Finland and Switzerland expect to have their first F-35s in 2025, a year before work will be completed under this contract,” concludes The Drive .
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/f-35-chi-sara-il-cliente-anonimo-del-nuovo-contratto-assegnato-a-lockheed-martin-le-ipotesi/ on Thu, 30 Dec 2021 06:42:20 +0000.