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WASHINGTON, Nov 24 (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp subsidiary Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Co has received aninterim payment of $1.28 billion for its 10th contract for F-35fighter jets, the Pentagon said.
It said in a statement the payment was to ensure there wouldbe no major production delays while the final terms of thecontract for 90 F-35 Lightning II jets up to a maximum of $7.19billion were being finalised.
The award is a modification to a previous Low Rate InitialProduction (LRIP) contract and comes after negotiations on theninth contract for F-35 jets concluded.
The U.S. Department of Defense will continue to negotiatethe specifics of LRIP 10 to finalize the contract, a spokesmanfor the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) said.
This order includes 76 F-35A aircraft for the U.S. AirForce, Non-U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) participants andforeign military sales customers; 12 F-35B aircraft for the U.S.Marine Corps and non-U.S. DoD Participants and two F-35Caircraft for the U.S. Navy.
"Once a final agreement on LRIP 10 is reached, the balanceof the funding is provided. We appreciate the actions taken bythe JPO to ensure delivery of F-35s," a spokesman for LockheedMartin Aeronautics said.
The F-35 is the Pentagon's costliest arms program. The U.S.Defense Department expects to spend $391 billion to develop theplane and buy 2,443 of the supersonic, stealthy new warplanes,in the coming decades.
Lockheed, and its main partners including Northrop Grumman, Pratt & Whitney and BAE Systems, havebeen developing and building F-35s for the U.S. military and 10allies. (Reporting by Eric Walsh and Mike Stone in Washington,Sangameswaran S in Bengaluru; editing by David Clarke)