SOURCE: API
Lockheed Martin, the maker of the F-35 stealth fighter, is getting ready to include an unknown country in the multinational fifth-generation aircraft program. The company secured a contract worth over $25 million from the US Department of Defense (DoD) on May 3rd to help an undisclosed country integrate as a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customer into the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. Although there is little information available, it appears that the award entails preparing an existing customer country to receive its initial F-35s.
Based on the information available, the undisclosed customer for Lockheed Martin’s F-35 fighter program is likely to be one of the nine Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers who have signed to acquire the aircraft.
The recent contract awarded to Lockheed Martin by the US Department of Defense (DoD) for “support of an undisclosed country’s integration as a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customer into the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program” appears to involve the preparation of an existing customer to receive their first F-35s. Since the term “integration” typically refers to activities that happen before the delivery of aircraft, it is probable that the customer is among the buyers who have yet to field the F-35s. Therefore, Belgium and Finland are the most likely countries that could be behind this undisclosed integration contract.