Pentagon Plans at Least 850 More F-35s
A 10-year agreement with Lockheed Martin covers production lots 21 through 30 for a fighter program whose product support office is based at Wright-Patterson.
The Defense Department and Lockheed Martin have reached an agreement under which the U.S. military will buy at least 850 F-35 Lightning II fighters over the next 10 years, the Dayton Daily News reported Oct. 22.
The department announced the deal Thursday, Oct. 22. It covers new production lots 21 through 30, plus spare parts, modification kits and sustainment of the global F-35 fleet, according to the newspaper.
In exchange, Lockheed Martin will pay for at least $7 billion in initiatives supporting the F-35 program from its own funds, the Daily News reported. The agreement still depends on approval and funding from Congress. The article did not report a total contract value.
What officials said
The Defense Department said "this deal maximizes purchasing power and delivers true economies of scale," according to the Daily News.
"We have fundamentally changed how we stabilize the American defense industrial base to produce at speed and scale," Under Secretary of Defense Michael Duffey said, the newspaper reported.
The F-35 is flown by the Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps. The Daily News described the agreement as a long-term buying signal for the fifth-generation fighter.
The Dayton connection
In 2018, the Air Force picked Wright-Patterson Air Force Base as home to the F-35 Lightning II Hybrid Product Support Integrator organization, the office that helps manage support for the fleet, according to the Daily News.
Lockheed's quarter
Lockheed Martin released third-quarter results the same day. The release did not mention the 850-jet agreement. It said the company "remains in negotiations with the U.S. Government on the production contracts for F-35 lots 20 and higher."
The company delivered 43 F-35s in the third quarter, down from 46 a year earlier, and 94 in the first nine months of 2026, down from 143 in the same period of 2025, according to the release. Lockheed reported a record total backlog of about $292 billion as of Sept. 27. It attributed much of that to a $52.5 billion multiyear award for PAC-3 MSE missiles.