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By Mike Stone
WASHINGTON, Feb 3 (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Defenseand Lockheed Martin Corp are set to announce a dealworth about $8.5 billion for 90 F-35 jets on Friday, peoplefamiliar with the talks said.
The deal for the tenth batch of the stealthy fighteraircraft brings the price per jet below $95 million for thefirst time, compared to $102 million in the previous batch,saving the Pentagon more than $700 million, the people said.
This is more than the $600 million that U.S. PresidentDonald Trump claimed on Monday he had been able to shave offfrom the F-35, the Pentagon's costliest arms program.
Trump had lashed out at the program as being "out ofcontrol" in December and vowed to bring the prices down.
Defense analysts have said the discount hailed by Trump wasin line with what had been flagged by Lockheed and Pentagonofficials for months.
A Lockheed representative declined to comment. Arepresentative for the Defense Department's F-35 program did notimmediately respond to requests for comment.
Though the F-35 program has been criticized by Trump as tooexpensive, the price per jet has been steadily declining asproduction ramps up.
Lockheed, the prime contractor, and its partners have beenworking on building a more cost-effective supply chain to fuelthe production line in Fort Worth, Texas.
Air Force Lieutenant General Chris Bogdan, who runs the F-35program for the Pentagon, said on Dec. 19 the cost per planeshould decrease about "6 to 7 percent" for the latest contract.
Lockheed's F-35 program manager Jeff Babione also said lastsummer that the price of the F-35A conventional takeoff andlanding version of the jet would drop to under $100 million perplane for the first time.
Lockheed and its main partners, including Northrop GrummanCorp, United Technologies Corp's Pratt & Whitneyand BAE Systems Plc, have been developing and buildingF-35s for the U.S. military and 10 allies.
The F-35 comes in three configurations, the A-model for theU.S. Air Force and U.S. allies; a F-35 B-model which can handleshort takeoffs and vertical landings for the Marine Corps andthe British navy; and carrier-variant F-35C jets for the U.S.Navy.
The U.S. Defense Department expects to spend $391 billion inthe coming decades to develop and buy 2,443 of the supersonicwarplanes.
(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Soyoung Kimand Bernadette Baum)