US Pays $372M to Cover Correcting ‘Deficiencies’ in F-35 Jets Sold to Allies

The United States allocated more than one third of a billion dollars in contract to correct "deficiencies" in troubled F-36 jets delivered to America's allies.

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Lockheed Martin has received a more than one third of a billion dollars order for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike aircraft, including provision to correct deficiencies in planes delivered to overseas allies, the US Department of Defense announced.

"Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company [in] Fort Worth, Texas is being awarded [a] $372 million… contract… [for] the procurement of F-35A and F-35B variant aircraft's including deficiency corrections for non-US Department of Defense participants," the announcement stated on Monday.

Work on the contract will be performed in several US locations and in Warton, United Kingdom as well as in Nagoya, Japan and is expected to be completed in March 2020, the Defense Department said.

According to the Defense Department's estimates, the F-35 program is expected to cost more than a $1 trillion over about 50 years.

President Donald Trump has already made several efforts to bring down the cost of the fifth-generation aircraft.