Lockheed Martin Corp, the Pentagon's No 1 defence contractor, said on Thursday it submitted an unsolicited offer to build 120 more of its C-130J transport aircraft over five years at a savings of 10 percent.
Under the firm, fixed-price five-year proposal, Lockheed would build 24 more C-130J aircraft for the Air Force and Marine Corps, with deliveries beginning in 2011 and ending in 2015. "The proposal would generate savings of more than 10 per cent over annual buys of the same amount of aircraft, while meeting the intent of the most recent multiyear criteria mandated by Congress," said Lockheed spokesman Tom Jurkowsky.
He gave no details on the overall price tag of the proposal. Defence analyst Loren Thompson, of the Virginia-based Lexington Institute, said the price tag was likely to be around $50 million per airplane, although the price would rise if the number of planes to be produced each year declined too far. Jurkowsky said the proposal assumed that Lockheed would produce an additional six planes a year for foreign countries.
The Air Force had no immediate comment, but its top weapons buyer, Sue Payton, in September said the service urgently needed to replace 115 aging HC-130 and MC-130 aircraft used to refuel helicopters and support special forces operations.
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