A conventional takeoff and landing variant of the F-35 multirole aircraft built by Lockheed Martin has achieved initial operational capability status from the government of Australia.

Lockheed Martin has shipped 123 F-35 aircraft in 2020, meeting its revised target number of at least 117 delivered jets amid the COVID-19 pandemic and corresponding delays. The company said Monday it delivered 74 units of the aircraft to the U.S. military, 18 to foreign military sales customers and 31 to international partners this year.

Lockheed Martin's rotary and mission systems business has secured a five-year, $101M contract from the U.S. Navy to provide services in support of foreign military sales clients' integrated weapon system and Aegis Combat System training efforts.

James Taiclet, president and CEO of Lockheed Martin, said acquiring Aerojet Rocketdyne will bring in propulsion systems for potential integration with Lockheed-built missile and rocket offerings, Via Satellite reported Monday. Taiclet told analysts Monday during a conference call he expects the transaction to support upfront design, production planning and engineering integration efforts at the Bethesda, Maryland-based aerospace and defense company.

Lockheed Martin's aeronautics business will work under a five-year, $40M contract from NASA to manufacture additional structural components and subsystems for an experimental aircraft that the agency plans to use to gauge public reception of flight sound.

Lisa Callahan, vice president and general manager of commercial civil space at Lockheed Martin, has provided an update on the company's partnership with Blue Origin for the development of a new system that would help astronauts land on the lunar surface, TechCrunch reported Friday.

Luna Innovations has extended its aircraft support partnership with Lockheed Martin with a $6.2M agreement to help ensure the readiness of F-35 Lightning II aircraft units worldwide.

Lockheed Martin has demonstrated the use of Kubernetes-based processing aboard a U-2 Dragon Lady reconnaissance aircraft as a precursor to achieving real-time software deliveries during flights. The Kubernetes containerization technology test, conducted in November, supports an effort to create a secure software development environment that allows aircraft to accommodate software updates when airborne, Lockheed said Monday.

BAE Systems has received a $60M contract from Lockheed Martin to build more missile seekers for integration into Long Range Anti-Ship Missile systems designed to help military customers detect and track targets while defending against counter-fire.

The fourth Lockheed Martin-made satellite under the U.S. Space Force's GPS III constellation effort has gained operational acceptance earlier than usual, C4ISRnet reported Thursday. The GPS III Space Vehicle 04 satellite launched last month and supports the implementation of the M-Code military GPS signal.

Lockheed Martin has announced the launch readiness of an upcoming military space satellite designed to provide missile warning via infrared technology. The company said Wednesday its fifth Space-Based Infrared System Geosynchronous Earth Orbit satellite or SBIRS GEO-5 is set for flight in 2021, following the satellite's completion in October this year.

Lockheed Martin has invested $750K in Canada-based artificial intelligence company DarwinAI to help the latter operationalize a project that seeks to accelerate diagnosis of COVID-19 through chest X-ray scans. Lockheed made the investment in DarwinAI through its Canadian arm and as part of the Industrial Technological Benefits policy.