Lockheed receives long-lead funding for first Israeli F-35s

Lockheed Martin has received $20.1 million in long-lead funding to start building the first two Israeli F-35A Joint Strike Fighters.
The eighth F-35 initial production lot consists of 45 jets in total. Of those, 29 are for the US military services including 19 F-35As for the US Air Force, six F-35Bs short take-off vertical landing jets for the US Marine Corps and four F-35C carrier variant machines for the US Navy. The remaining 16 fighters are international orders including four F-35B aircraft for Britain, four F-35As for Japan, four F-35As for Italy, two F-35As for Norway and the aforementioned pair of Israeli aircraft.
The Italian aircraft are still awaiting for funds to be released.

flightglobal