Aircraft
Lockheed Martin Touts ‘Block Buy’ Option for F-35
Lockheed Martin seeks more certainty over production rates for the F-35 fighter.
Terma president and CEO Jens Maaloe, l, and Lockheed Martin's Orlando Carvalho sign MoU at Paris Air Show. (Photo: Mark Wagner)
Terma president and CEO Jens Maaloe, l, and Lockheed Martin's Orlando Carvalho sign MoU at Paris Air Show. (Photo: Mark Wagner)

The U.S. government is pressing F-35 international partners to make a firmer commitment to the $391 billion program by signing on to a “block buy” of some 450 fighters over three years, Lockheed Martin said Monday at the Paris Air Show. That would lend certainty to a program that has thus far delivered only a handful of fighters to its eight partners.