WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Pentagon said on Friday it had awarded Lockheed Martin Corp a contract valued at $4.7 billion for an eighth batch of F-35 fighter jets, marking a drop in cost per plane of 3.5 percent from the last contract, and a 57 percent reduction from the first batch.The Pentagon's F-35 program office said the deal includes 29 jets for the United States and 14 for five other countries: Israel, Japan, Norway, Britain and Italy.
Once production of those jets is completed, more than 200 F-35s will be in operation by eight countries, according to the office that runs the $399 billion F-35 program for the Pentagon.
The Pentagon has signed a separate contract valued at $1.05 billion for an eighth batch of engines built by Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp , to power the jets.
The program office said the new contract reduced the cost of the A-model airframe built for the Air Force, without the engine, to $94.8 million.
The cost of the F-35 B-model, which can take off from shorter runways and lands like a helicopter, would be $102 million, without an engine, while the Navy's C-model or carrier variant would be $115.7 million, it said.
The Pentagon does not provide detailed cost breakdowns for Pratt's F135 engine, given the company's concerns about proprietary data, but U.S. officials have said they expect the cost of the aircraft, with an engine, to drop to about $80 million to $85 million by 2019.
Lockheed's F-35 program manager, Lorraine Martin, said the latest contract showed the company was making steady progress in reducing the cost of the most advanced U.S. warplane.
(Reporting by Andrea Shalal; Editing by Mohammad Zargham)
Join the conversation about this story » Reported by Business Insider 11 hours ago.