Lockheed: Foreign investors will offset F-35 program

FORT WALTON BEACH — Eglin Air Force Base may be able to boast the largest F-35 fleet in the world, but the Joint Strike Fighter is most certainly a global project.

Representatives from Lockheed Martin’s F-35 team met with local media recently to present a pro-gram-wide update on the Joint Strike Fighter. The $50 billion development program for the U.S. government is being offset by more than $35 billion in investments from foreign countries.

The United Kingdom, Netherlands, Italy, Australia, Turkey, Canada and Norway are partner countries that have contributed to the development of the F-35 and have been involved with the program since 2002. The seven countries have committed to buying a total of about 800 of the jets.

“That means since this is the only maintenance training base for the F-35, (Eglin) will be hosting all seven countries,” said Stephen O’Bryan, vice president of Lockheed Martin’s F-35 program integration. “You have a significant amount of international commitment to the program, and obviously you have the three services which will have jets and all three versions will be down here this year.”

The U.K. and the Netherlands will be the first partners to receive its jets at Eglin.

All F-35s coming out of Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth-based aeronautics center next year are expected to remain in the United States. In 2014, F-35s will be delivered to Italy and Australia, followed by more deliveries to the U.K. and Turkey in 2015. Japan, Norway and Israel will get them in 2016, along with Canada in 2017 and Denmark in 2018.

Although they have not helped fund the development of the F-35, Israel and Japan have agreed to purchase Joint Strike Fighters, O’Bryan said. In addition to the $65 million price tag for each jet, those countries will pay a recoupment fee to help make up some of the program’s development costs.

Additionally, South Korea and Singapore are also interested in the jets and will hold open competitions to determine which fifth generation fighter jet they will purchase.

O’Bryan said if Israel, Singapore, Japan and South Korea were to sign of with the F-35, the four countries are expected to order more jets than the seven partner countries that contributed to the program’s development.

Construction is ongoing in Italy on its $1 billion Final Assembly and Checkout Facility. The project is designed to take the parts completed in Fort Worth and finish the final 20 percent of assembly on the Italian F-35s.