The U.S. Navy is planning to test the carrier version of the Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35C, aboard the aircraft carrier Eisenhower during the first few weeks of October. The F-35B, a variation of the plane designed for the Marine Corps and built by Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT), was recently declared operational. The Navy version is expected to be operational by 2018, two years after the Air Force version, the F-35A, becomes operational.

In initial at-sea trials last November, the F-35C completed 124 catapult launches and arrested landing with no missed landings, according to a report at Defense News. The testing program was accelerated by six months because all scheduled 2014 testing met goals ahead of schedule. The initial tests also resulted in qualification of four test pilots to fly the F-35C in at-sea tests.

That is the good news. The not-so-good news, at least from the Navy’s point of view, is that the service may not be able to purchase as many of the new airplanes as it had originally planned. Under the original plan the Defense Department aimed to purchase a total of 2,443 F-35s. The Marine Corps plans to buy a total of 340 F-35Bs and 80 F-35Cs. The Navy’s current plan calls for the service to acquire around 20 F-35Cs annually for 10 years beginning in 2020, while the Air Force purchase has been reported at 48 a year in 2017 rising to 60 to 80 per year.

How many F-35s the Pentagon buys depends on the Defense Department budget, but Lockheed expects to be able to produce 20 a month by 2019. In addition to the Pentagon, the F-35 counts the United Kingdom, Italy, the Netherlands, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Norway and Turkey among its partners and buyers. Lockheed expects to be able to reduce the cost per plane to around $90 million once it achieves full production from a price of $108 million for F-35As produced in 2014.

When the F-35C becomes operational in 2018, the Navy will have a full squadron of 10 F-35Cs and trained pilots to fly them.

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