The U.S. Department of Defense announced a total of 22 new defense contracts worth a combined $7.59 billion on Tuesday.
Notwithstanding the large headline number, one single contract for the supply of solar energy to the U.S. Army accounted for 92% of the funds on offer. The other contracts awarded were, accordingly, mostly small in size. One that stands out from the pack, though, is the $69.6 million deal that United Technologies (RTX 0.56%) secured. According to the Pentagon's news release, UTC is being awarded funds to purchase long-lead components, parts and materials necessary to build propulsion systems for a total of 39 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters that Lockheed Martin (LMT 0.16%) is building for the U.S. and its allies.
Specifically, the fighter jets (and the UTC-built engines that propel them) are to be allocated as follows:
- 19 Conventional Take Off and Landing (CTOL) F-35As to the U.S Air Force;
- 6 Short Take-off and Vertical Landing (STOVL) F-35Bs to the U.S. Marine Corps;
- 4 Carrier variants -- F-35Cs featuring larger wingspans and foldable wingtips -- to the U.S. Navy.
- Also, 4 F-35As will be going to Italy;
- 4 F-35Bs to the United Kingdom;
- and two F-35As to Norway.
These fighter jets and engines are all being built as part of Low-Rate Initial Production (LRIP) Lot VII. Work on this production lot is expected to be complete by September 2016.
