Lockheed Martin Wins Navy Deal To Analyze F-35 Program

Lockheed Martin Corp.’s (NYSE:LMT) Aeronautics business segment recently clinched a contract in relation to F-35 jets. Work related to the deal is scheduled to be over by December 2018.

Details of the Deal

Valued at $14.4 million, the contract was awarded by the Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland. Per the terms of the deal, the company will offer emerging capabilities and analysis systems engineering to include programmatic and logistics tasks. These efforts will analyze the F-35 air system's ability to meet future operational requirements, investigate cost and weight reduction program options, and conduct modeling and simulation activities.

The contract also include provisions for additional assessments such as analyzing changes to design life, operational readiness, reliability, and air system design and configuration. Fiscal 2018 research, development, test and evaluation (Navy) funds will be utilized to complete the task at Fort Worth, TX.

F-35 Attributes

Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II is a single-seat, single-engine 5th Generation fighter aircraft, which comes with an advanced stealth feature combined with enhanced fighter speed and agility, fully-fused sensor information, network-enabled operations and advanced sustainment. Currently, three variants of F-35 are set to replace five fighter jets for the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps as well as a variety of fighter jets for at least 10 other countries.

With Lockheed Martin being the primary partner, the F-35 program has been supported by an international team of leading aerospace majors. While, Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) rendered its expertise in carrier aircraft and low-observable stealth technology to this program, BAE Systems’ (OTC:BAESY) short takeoff and vertical landing experience, and air systems sustainment supported the jet’s combat capabilities. Also, Pratt & Whitney, a unit of United Technologies (NYSE:UTX) , provided F-35s with the F135 propulsion system — the world's most powerful fighter engine.

Recent Developments

The F-35 program is Lockheed Martin’s largest program, which generated 24% of its total net sales in first-quarter 2018. As of May 14, 2018, the company delivered more than 290 F-35 jets to the United States and its allies.

However, critics earlier condemned this program as the costliest military program for the U.S. government. It was only after President Trump’s intervention, in February 2017, that Lockheed Martin ultimately announced its decision to cut down F-35’s cost significantly.

Now, the company’s current cost-saving initiative to lower sustainment costs for F-35 project is expected to result in cost savings of $1 billion over a five-year period. In sync with this, per a recent report by Lockheed Martin, it targets to reduce the cost of an F-35A to $80 million by 2020, with production enhancements.

Also, additional improvements implemented in these planes like the software upgrades, which were a part of this latest contract, will allow the company to further reduce the cost of this program. Moreover, with the U.S. government’s current inventory objective of 2,456 F-35 aircraft alongside its reduced price we may expect to witness a continued ramp up in the production of these jets in coming days. No doubt, Lockheed Martin enjoys a solid growth prospect for F-35 program, which in turn, will surely boost its profit margin.

Price Movement

In a year’s time, shares of Lockheed Martin have rallied about 15.5% compared with the industry’s increase of 41.7%. The underperformance was most probably caused by the intense competition that the company faces domestically as well as internationally.

Zacks Rank

Lockheed Martin currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

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