JSF Talks

Speaking in New York today, Northrop Grumman CEO Wes Bush suggested that the end of seemingly interminable negotiations between Lockheed Martin and the Defense Department on the fifth production lot of the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft may finally be in sight.

Northrop is a major supplier to prime contractor Lockheed on the F-35 program, and Bush, appearing at a conference put on by investment bank Credit Suisse this morning, said that Lockheed and Northrop have come to a deal on their own relationship during LRIP 5. Bush did not specify how recently that agreement was signed.

LRIP 5 negotiations began almost two years ago, in December 2010, and the government and industry's inability to complete that arrangement has prevented progress on LRIP 6. It also led the program's incoming leader, Maj. Gen. Christopher Bogdan, to criticize the relationship between the F-35 program office and Lockheed Martin.

Asked about contracting on the F-35 from a supplier's point of view, Bush said:

Lockheed is the prime obviously on F-35. We're a supplier to Lockheed, and just as when we are the prime, we like to make sure we've got our structure in place with our suppliers before we finalize the ultimate negotiations, and we want to be able to bring that full visibility to the extent we can to our customer community when we're finalizing negotiations.

We've reached agreement with Lockheeed on LRIP 5 and I think that was an important step to enable them to move forward in their process in reaching agreement with their customer community. I don't see anything unusual about that. I see that as sort of a typical process for this scale of activity.

InsideDefense.com has requested comment from Northrop Grumman and will provide more information as soon as it is available.