LMT - F-35 jets grounded by Air Force over ejection seat concerns

The U.S. Air Force has temporarily grounded most of its fleet of Lockheed Martin ( NYSE: LMT ) F-35 fighter jets Friday, due to a faulty component in the ejection seat that could endanger pilots in an emergency, Breaking Defense reports.

"Out of an abundance of caution, [Air Combat Command] units will execute a stand-down on July 29 to expedite the inspection process," a spokesperson said. "Based on data gathered from those inspections, ACC will make a determination to resume operations."

Air Education and Training Command also said it has paused F-35 operations "to allow our logistics team to further analyze the issue and expedite the inspection process."

The problem has been found in other types of military planes used in training : The Air Force on Thursday decided to ground nearly 300 training aircraft over the issue, while the Navy and Marine Corps also have grounded some of their fixed-wing aircraft.

Lockheed Martin's ( LMT ) next U.S. Department of Defense contract for several hundred F-35s reportedly will be worth ~$30B .

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