Lockheed Martin

The Pentagon may halt manufacturing support for the F-35 fighter jet in Turkey if Ankara insists on purchasing the Russian S-400 missile defense system, US Acting Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan said on Friday, according to Agence France-Presse. 

Lockheed Martin Corp reported better-than-expected quarterly profit on April 23 as U.S. President Donald Trump's looser policies on foreign arms sales boosted demand for missiles and fighter jets.

Greece will consider the possibility of acquiring the US-made F-35 fighter jets as part of its efforts to upgrade its Air Force fleet, Defense Minister Evangelos Apostolakis said on Friday, following remarks by a US official on expanding the sales of the aircraft.

The United States is considering expanding sales of Lockheed Martin Corp-made F-35 fighter jets to five new nations including Romania, Greece and Poland as European allies bulk up their defenses in the face of a strengthening Russia, a Pentagon official told Congress on Thursday.

This will happen if the delivery contract is signed by the summer, reported NOVA TV. 
By four years, Bulgaria will be able to get the first two F-16 fighters if the delivery contract is signed by the summer. This was explained by the US martial aircraft manufacturer.

U.S. officials are telling Turkey that it would be "impossible" to pass the sale of Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jets through Congress due to Ankara's procurement of S-400 defense systems from Russia, but Turkey is working to resolve the issue, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on March 8.

Lockheed Martin Corp. expects it will take around 15 to 20 years to bring the cost per flight hour of the F-35 below fourth-generation fighter jets such as the F-16, the head of the F-35 program said on Feb. 27.

SOFIA, Bulgaria (BulgarianMilitary.com), 19 September 2018, Author: Boyko Nikolov, Photo credit: Pixabay

A joint US House and Senate conference committee upheld on Thursday restrictions on the sale of Russian F-35s to Turkey in its report on the Department of Defense Appropriations bill for 2019, Greek-American media have reported.

The United States has struck a preliminary deal to buy F-35 jets from Lockheed Martin worth about $13 billion, clearing the way for a larger multi-year purchase that aims to bring the cost per jet down to $80 million by 2020, sources said.