The US Department of Defense has contracted Pentagon’s No.1 weapons supplier Lockheed Martin Corp for recurring logistics services for delivered F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter Air Systems in support of the Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy, non-Department of Defense participants and foreign military sales (FMS) customers.

“Services to be provided include ground maintenance activities, action request resolution, depot activation activities, automatic logistics information system operations and maintenance, reliability, maintainability and health management implementation and support, supply chain management and activities to provide and support pilot and maintainer initial training,” a service news release states.

Work will be performed in Fort Worth, Texas (61%); Orlando, Florida (25%); Greenville, South Carolina (5%); Warton, United Kingdom (6%) and Redondo Beach, California (3%); and is expected to be completed in December 2020.

This contract combines purchase for the Air Force ($392,321,076; 38%), Marine Corps ($191,048,520; 19%), Navy ($87,653,188; 9%), non-DoD participants ($231,962,860; 23%) and FMS customers ($111,352,368; 11%).

With more than 490 aircraft operating from 21 bases around the globe, the F-35 plays a critical role in today’s global security environment.

Today, 975 pilots and 8,585 maintainers are trained, and the F-35 fleet has surpassed more than 240,000 cumulative flight hours. Eight nations have F-35s operating from a base on their home soil, eight services have declared Initial Operating Capability and four services have employed F-35s in combat operations.