The U.S. Department of Defense Thursday announced that it has awarded Lockheed Martin with a 450-million-U.S.-dollar contract to develop F-35 fighter jets for South Korea.

The contract is a modification of a previous 920-million-dollar deal for Lockheed Martin to manufacture 94 various models of F-35s for the United States and its allies.

"This modification continues the integration work to implement the development and delivery of the F-35A Air System to the Republic of Korea under the Foreign Military Sales program," a statement said.

The work will be carried out in Fort Worth, Texas, and is expected to complete by August 2019.

The Foreign Military Sales program allows the Pentagon to facilitate contracts between foreign governments and U.S. arms manufacturers.

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has recently blasted Lockheed Martin for the "out of control costs" of its F-35s. He has also complained that the new Air Force Ones, built by Boeing at 4 billion dollars each, are too expensive.

source: Xinhua