RAF FAIRFORD, England, July 7 (Reuters) - Lockheed MartinCorp said on Thursday it expects to reach an agreementsoon with the U.S. Defense Department about contracts for thenext 160 F-35 fighter jets, a deal valued at around $15 billion.
Jeff Babione, Lockheed's F-35 programme manager, toldreporters he was "very, very encouraged" by the discussionsabout the ninth and 10th contracts, which are being conducted intandem, and expected to finalise a deal with the Pentagon soon.
Babione said the price of the F-35A conventional takeoff andlanding jets would drop to under $100 million in the 10th batchof low-rate production jets.
"I know it's going to be less, it's just how much less," hesaid. He said Lockheed was still working to drive the price ofthe jets down to around $85 million by 2019. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Susan Fenton)