Lockheed Martin aims to knock 14 per cent off the cost of Britain’s F-35B fighter jets over the next couple of years, the firm’s director of business development told The Register.

At a press event in London last week, Steve Over told us: “We’re currently negotiating [production] lots 12, 13 and 14 to get costs down. Lot 10 [the batch currently being delivered] each aircraft is about $122m, which I think is about £90m at current rates. This is not the low point.”

F-35s are ordered by a US government agency, the F-35 Joint Project Office, which formally places the orders with the company on behalf of both the American armed forces and foreign customers including the UK.

While production lots 12-14 have already been awarded to Lockheed Martin, officials are still haggling over the price of each supersonic stealth fighter. The F-35B will be the only fighter jet capable of flying from Britain’s Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers.

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