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Investing.com – Lockheed Martin stock (NYSE:LMT) slipped 0.7% in premarket Wednesday on a Bloomberg report that Pentagon will request 35% fewer F-35 stealth jets in the next budget.
According to the report, orders for 61 F-35s are likely to be placed with the defense contractor in the next budget, 33 less than originally planned.
The current budget contains orders for 85 jets, and next year’s were due to rise to 94.
The proposed slowdown in purchases may be controversial given that it comes in at the time of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and raises questions around the administration’s commitment to a program projected to cost $398 billion in development and acquisition plus an additional $1.2 trillion to operate and maintain the fleet over 66 years, according to Bloomberg.
Talks with Lockheed for the next F-35 contract — for about 400 planes — are going slower than anticipated, the news agency said. The fighter jet program remains hobbled by flawed execution of a crucial software upgrade and hardware capabilities that’s estimated to cost $14 billion.
The F-35 is currently being deployed to Eastern Europe. German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht announced Monday that Germany would buy 35 of the warplanes. The reduction in the Pentagon’s orders for next year thus arguably create a space that may be filled by an upgrade to the airforce of a key NATO ally.
