At Lockheed Martin's plants in the United States, work has begun to produce a different and mysterious model of the elusive F-35 fighter jet for an "unidentified foreign customer." One of the theses is that the customer is the Israeli Air Force. However, not everyone agrees.

At Lockheed Martin's plants in the United States, work began on producing a different and mysterious model of the elusive F-35 fighter jet for an "unidentified foreign customer", and the company received a special contract worth $49 million in military aid to manufacture the special model. 

A news item in this spirit is published by JANE'S and THE DRIVE in conjunction with Lockheed Martin's detailed announcement of the 'mysterious' aircraft. There is no identification of the customer, but photos of the special F-35 test aircraft produced by the company for the Israeli Air Force appear on both sites. The test aircraft is already in Israel, at the Flight Testing Center, for the purpose of integrating Israeli systems.

The information in both sources explains that it is unlikely that this is a customer who has not yet bought and operated F-35 aircraft, but a customer who is already operating these aircraft. It is also implied that Israel is installing Israeli systems in its F-35 planes, such as the 'Spice' armament system, Rafael's air-to-air missiles and other Israeli systems, and it is possible that Israel is indeed the "mysterious" customer.

However, as mentioned, the test plane has long since landed in Israel, so it is possible that there is another customer who ordered a special model.