Lockheed Martin received a $40. 2 million contract to procure the long-lead-time parts, materials, and components for Japan’s first four F-35 strike fighters, according to the Pentagon’s list of major contracts for March 25. Japan is procuring some 42 F-35As—the Air Force conventional-takeoff variant—under a foreign military sale with the United States that the Pentagon formally announced in April 2012. Under the contract’s terms, Lockheed Martin is scheduled to complete the long-lead work in February 2014, states the contract description. The company will build Japan’s first four F-35As as part of the F-35’s eighth low-rate production lot. (See also Japan Selects F-35.)
A-10 Thunderbolt II attack planes in the Middle East are flying with fresh modifications as the Air Force looks to make the plane more versatile amid America’s ongoing blockade of Iranian ports and a tenuous ceasefire in the U.S. air war against Iran.