Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II development

Bulgaria will receive training simulators for F-16 fighters for training pilots for national and NATO missions from the manufacturer Lockheed Martin. Bulgaria is among the first countries to receive F-16 Block 70 fighters and will have simulators with the latest technical configuration.

Lockheed Martin Corp said on Tuesday it was working to establish alternate supply sources for F-35 parts in the United States after the Pentagon decided last week to remove Turkey from the fighter jet program.
On a post-earnings call, Lockheed's chief executive officer said the company would be able to remove Turkey from its manufacturing supply chain by March 2020.

Washington is looking at imposing financial sanctions on Turkish firms beyond those that build parts for the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter jet, over Ankara's plans to buy a Russian air defense system, a top Pentagon official said on Monday.

The US Department of Defense has a "handshake" agreement with Lockheed Martin Co to cut 8.8 percent from the price of its latest order of F-35A fighter jet, shaving a year from the time frame in which each aircraft will cost less than $80 million, a Pentagon official said on Monday.

"The U.S. said on June 6 it would halt new pilot training on the F-35 fighter jet program with Turkey.

The U.S. is set to deliver two more F-35 fighter jets to Turkey, a spokesman for the F-35 program said on March 19.

Lockheed Martin Corp. expects it will take around 15 to 20 years to bring the cost per flight hour of the F-35 below fourth-generation fighter jets such as the F-16, the head of the F-35 program said on Feb. 27.

Turkey faces removal from the U.S.-led F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) Program if it continues its purchase of S-400 air defense systems from Russia, according to a Pentagon report obtained by Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency.

The U.S. will deliver two more F-35 fighter jets to Turkey in 2019, the military head of the F-35 program said on Oct. 1.

The United States has struck a preliminary deal to buy F-35 jets from Lockheed Martin worth about $13 billion, clearing the way for a larger multi-year purchase that aims to bring the cost per jet down to $80 million by 2020, sources said.