Japan orders 4 F-35s

Japan, a late entry in countries buying the F-35, placed a firm order for 4 of the stealth aircraft today:

Japan on Friday signed a formal agreement with the United States to buy an initial four F-35 fighters built by Lockheed Martin Corp and other equipment for 60 billion yen ($756.53 million), a company spokesman said.

The letter of offer and acceptance, which was signed in Japan, includes four conventional takeoff variants of the F-35 fighter at a cost of 10.2 billion yen ($128.61 million) each, a slightly higher price than the 9.9 billion yen ($124.83 million) than Japan initially budgeted to spend.

But the cost of the two simulators and other equipment dropped to 19.1 billion yen ($240.83 million) from the anticipated level of 20.5 billion yen ($258.48 million) so the overall price remained at 60 billion yen.

Norway placed it’s first order for F-35s a couple of weeks ago.  Foreign orders will help Lockheed Martin maintain production on the jets at higher levels than with domestic orders only and should benefit in cost savings as full production ramps up.

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