Air Warfare

DoD awards Polish F-35 support contract

1st June 2021 - 17:19 GMT | by The Shephard News Team

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The F-35A is designed to operate from conventional runways and is the most common variant. (Photo: Lockheed Martin)

Lockheed Martin receives a support contract from the US DoD for F-35s on order from Poland.

Lockheed Martin has been awarded a $24.29 million contract from US Naval Air Systems Commandto provide non-recurring engineering and logistics sustainment programme support for F-35A Lightning II combat aircraft on order from Poland

The contract was not competitively procured, the DoD announced on 28 May.

Work is due to be completed in April 2024.

According to Shephard Defence Insight, the US announced in September 2019 a potential FMS to Poland of F-35A aircraft, with an estimated cost of $6.5 billion, to replace the legacy Mi-29 and Su-22 fleet in service with the Polish Air Force.

Later, on 31 January 2020, Poland signed a $4.6 billion FMS contract to acquire 32 F-35As.

The deal also includes logistics and training. Deliveries of the F-35s will commence in 2024, with the first batch of six aircraft scheduled to be received in the 2024-25 period, following the training of Polish pilots in the US.