Originally Posted by
Commando Cody
Cost figures on which I based my statements.
USAF budget documents indicate that an F-15EX will have a "flyaway" cost of $87.7 million. An F-35A delivered in 2022 will have a "flyaway" cost of $77.9 million. But you've always got to be careful when aircraft prices are listed, because the definitions are, shall we say, "fluid". To the "flyaway" cost of a F-15EX must be added the cost of major systems such as the radar and the electronic warfare suite which aren't covered in that number, whereas the "flyaway" cost of the F-35A includes those systems. So, the difference is even greater.
The American people were promised that the F-35A would be a cost reasonable replacement for the A-10 and the F-16 when Lockheed Martin won the contract in 2001.
The latest figure tossed out by the Pentagon and Lockheed is the F-35A will cost $80 million each. No they won't! They will cost far more. The latest Pentagon and Lockheed Martin figure touted in the press is $80 million
for each F-35A in the Lot 14 batch for fiscal year 2020. But taxpayers will pay far more than that for an F-35A. This number, like the others trotted out to prove the plane’s affordability, hardly provides the full picture not just of the price per aircraft, but the program as a whole. The $80 million sticker price for the 2020 model F-35A jumps up to $110 millionwhen all aspects of the program are added together according to the USAF justification book and that doesn't include costs that were paid for in previous years. IMHO, it is best to look at the bigger picture, not just acquisition alone.
When all the operating costs for the planned fleet are calculated across the expected 50-year lifetime of the program, the American people will spend an estimated $1.727 trillion on the F-35 aircraft planned for Pentagon purchases. I don't think the F-15EX operating costs will be anything approaching the likes of the F-35.