New F-35 Sustainment Deal Creates Path To Lockheed Multi-Year PBL Contract - Breaking Defense

The Pentagon has granted a new F-35 sustainment contract with Lockheed Martin, one which the F-35 Joint Program Office says lays the groundwork to move towards a performance-based logistics (PBL) agreement with the world’s largest defense company.

The agreement covers fiscal year 2021, with options for 2022 and 2023. Should all the options be picked up, the contract will have a $6.6 billion price tag, according to a Defense Department press release. Cost per flight hour for the global fleet should drop by 8% over that three-year period, from $36,100 in 2020 to $33,400 in 2023; the cost per flight hour of the F-35A, the most common of the three F-35 variants, will drop from $33,600 to $30,000 during that time period.

“Working together with our Industry Partner, the F-35 Joint Program Office team negotiated aggressive cost savings and performance targets that will benefit the global F-35 sustainment enterprise, and all F-35 customers,” Lt. Gen. Eric Fick, program executive officer of the F-35 Joint Program Office, said in a statement. “The JPO remains committed to working with industry partners and F-35 stakeholders to deliver the capabilities our warfighters require at a cost our taxpayers can afford. This ’21-23 sustainment contract agreement is a positive step in securing affordable lifecycle costs for our customers.”