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By Andrea Shalal
RAF FAIRFORD, England, July 7 (Reuters) - Lockheed MartinCorp said on Thursday it expected to reach an agreementsoon with the U.S. Defense Department about contracts for thenext 160 F-35 radar-evading fighter jets, two long-awaited dealsvalued 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 version of the multi-role jet would drop to under $100million per plane in the 10th low-rate production batch. Thatincludes an engine built by Pratt & Whitney, a unit of UnitedTechnologies Corp.
"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.
Six of the F-35 Lightning IIs will fly this week at theRoyal International Air Tattoo near Fairford, England, theworld's largest military airshow, along with a U.S. Air ForceF-22 Raptor, also built by Lockheed, the Pentagon's largestsupplier.
The F-35 had been due to make its international premiere atthe same air show two years ago, but those plans were scrappedafter an engine failure grounded the overall F-35 fleet.
Two F-35s made their premier appearance at an internationalair show in the Netherlands last month after carrying out aseries of tests that officials said showed that the new stealthyjets were no noisier than previous jets.
Babione said the program had come a long way in the past twoyears, with more than 180 F-35s now flying and the U.S. AirForce poised to declare an initial squadron ready for combatbetween August and December.
A year ago the U.S. Marine Corps declared as ready forcombat its first squadron of F-35Bs, the short take-off andvertical landing version. It plans to deploy that first squadronto a U.S. air base in Iwakuni, Japan early next year.
Babione said Lockheed was ready to invest an additional $60million to $100 million in new technologies or changes that canfurther lower the cost of the jets under a program calledBlueprint for Affordability.
The first phase of that program involved investments of $170million by Lockheed and primary development partners NorthropGrumman Corp and BAE Systems Plc. (Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Susan Fenton, GregMahlich)