The F-35 program office announced today that it has "reached an agreement in principle" with Lockheed Martin on a long-delayed contract for the production of a fifth lot of F-35 jets. Negotiations on the fifth batch of low-rate initial production aircraft, known as LRIP 5, began in December 2010, nearly two years ago. Those negotiations are just about at an end, and the parties have agreed to a deal by which the Defense Department will buy 32 F-35s plus manufacturing...
