The U.S. Dept. of War assigned $2.29 billion to Lockheed Martin for “non-recurring sustainment activities and services” connected with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. The award specifies those activities and services as: “site activation, interim contractor support, fleet management, and reliability and maintainability improvement plan in support of establishing new operational sites, one-time setup of both land-based and at-sea fleet support operations including initial engineering and technical sustainment services.”

Pentagon overseers have become steadily more frustrated with the combat readiness of the F-35 aircraft fleet.

Earlier this year Lockheed acknowledged the long-standing F-35 fleet-readiness problems, reportedly committing $1 billion to resolve them.

Lockheed Martin is the lead contractor for the F-35 program, which is a single-engine stealth-enabled fighter jet in use by the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Marine Corps, and U.S. Navy, and defense forces of 19 other nations.

The largest U.S. defense program started in 2001 and low-rate initial production began in 2007. Lot 20 F-35 production is on track to start production this year.

More than 1,300 aircraft have been built to date, and over 800 of those are in service with the three U.S. operators. The number of domestic suppliers to the F-35 program is estimated to be up to 1,900.

But the full-rate production is now straining the sustainment infrastructure for the program, meaning skilled workers and facilities, plus technical data, supply chains, maintenance systems, and engineering support needed to support the aircraft once they are delivered to the operators.

The new contract - which runs through December 2028 - will fund Lockheed Martin as it supports the expansion of program’s training centers, supply depots, and service hubs, plus the cost of managing fleet support activities.