June 11 (Reuters) - The Pentagon is scaling back in half

its request to Congress for Lockheed Martin's ( LMT ) F-35 jets,

Bloomberg on News reported on Tuesday.

A U.S. Defense Department procurement request document sent

to Capitol Hill this week asked for 24 of the planes, down from

48 that was forecast last year, the report said.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report. Lockheed

Martin ( LMT ) and the Department of Defense did not respond to requests

for comment outside regular business hours.