Exclusive: Lockheed to buy European satellite for South Korea in F-35 deal

[unhappycamper]

http://in.reuters.com/article/2014/09/26/us-lockheed-fighter-southkorea-idINKCN0HL2FS20140926

Exclusive: Lockheed to buy European satellite for South Korea in F-35 deal
By Andrea Shalal
WASHINGTON Sat Sep 27, 2014 4:55am IST

(Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp (LMT.N) said it will buy a European-built military communications satellite for South Korea as part of a $7 billion deal to supply Seoul with 40 F-35 fighter jets, in what industry observers call among the most unusual "offset" agreements ever to accompany a major arms sale.

~snip~

"The Lockheed Martin offset commitment ... directly benefits Korean national defense requirements, enables substantial Korean industrial activity and transfers a large amount of high technology to the Republic of Korea," Lockheed said.

Steve Over, director of international business development for the F-35 program, said Lockheed would buy and launch the satellite by 2017, including all necessary control equipment and technical training. He declined to give further details.

U.S. government and industry officials said they believed it was the first time that a U.S. firm had included a satellite in a so-called "offset agreement" with an arms deal. In this case, Seoul's offset target was 50 percent of the value of the jets.