The Pentagon has awarded Lockheed Martin a multimillion contract to develop a new F-35 stealth fighter jet variant. A New Variant of the F-35? What We Know According to a Department of Defense press release published on December 27, Lockheed Martin has been awarded a contract for engineering and other related activities in order to design and develop a new variant of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft. "Lockheed Martin Corp., Fort Worth, Texas, is awarded a $49,059,494 cost-plus-incentive-fee-contract that provides engineering and other related activities in support of the design and development of a Joint Strike Fighter aircraft variant tailored for an unspecified Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customer," the Pentagon announced. The new variant is for an unspecified foreign customer, and the contract is worth a little more than $49 million, with a delivery date of 2026.