F-35: Pentagon and Lockheed Martin discuss a multi-year deal of up to ten years for production and support

The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin are discussing a “mega-deal” for the F-35 that could cover up to a decade and include both production and sustainment of the fifth-generation fighter, according to people familiar with the negotiations, as Breaking Defense reported on Friday, October 9.

A multi-year procurement contract for the F-35 has been weighed for years. The new push comes as the Trump administration seeks to expand long-term agreements for key weapons, such as munitions. A deal covering production and sustainment of all three versions of the aircraft could be worth tens of billions of dollars.

What Honeywell says

“There’s been talk about a 10-year, multi-year buy that would include the production as well as sustainment,” Matt Milas, president of Honeywell Aerospace’s defense division, told Breaking Defense in a September interview. Honeywell is a key supplier to the programme. According to Milas, the agreement could include “bulk buys” of spare parts, with the increased flow of components beginning around the jet’s 21st production lot, in roughly three years. More spare parts are viewed as a key way to improve the aircraft’s poor readiness rates.

Milas said the “big benefit” would be mainly on the sustainment side, since the production rate is expected to remain at 156 aircraft a year. “It’s more about the sustainment and how do you get more spares and get that bulk buy up front so that you’re not going year-to-year or small lots,” he said. It is unclear whether the production and sustainment agreements would be linked or structured separately, or whether they would run for the same length of time.

The reservations

A source familiar with the negotiations expressed skepticism. A multi-year procurement “makes sense where the department has seen success with munitions contracts. It makes less sense for aircraft lot buys,” the source said, particularly because some aspects of F-35 modernisation are still in development. The same source called Lockheed’s sustainment proposal “PBL by another name” and doubted that the company can “successfully propose something that demonstrates long-term cost savings”.

Lockheed had previously pushed for a five-year performance-based logistics (PBL) sustainment contract, which pays the contractor on outcomes such as availability. Lawmakers, however, required the Pentagon to certify that such an agreement would cut maintenance costs or raise readiness, a hurdle officials were unable to clear. Dina Halvorsen, Lockheed’s vice president of F-35 global sustainment, said at a September 14 briefing: “A multi-year performance-based contract is still in discussion. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a PBL.” A Lockheed spokesperson told Breaking Defense that the company “continues to advocate for a multi-year contracting approach”, which would provide “additional stability for the F-35 industrial base”. The F-35 Joint Program Office and the Pentagon declined to comment.

Congress has not yet granted approval. The Senate Armed Services Committee’s fiscal 2027 defence authorization bill includes language permitting multi-year F-35 procurement, and the House version has a similar provision with extra guardrails, including a certified saving of at least 5 percent. Neither version explicitly authorises a multi-year sustainment agreement, according to Breaking Defense.

The issue also concerns Greece, which has signed for 20 F-35As with an option for another 20. The cost and availability of spare parts will directly affect the aircraft’s operating cost for all customers of the programme.