Originally Posted by
Melchett01
I’m well out of the loop these days on these things, but a genuine question over costs. The Seattle Time article notes the US Army is saving close to $1Bn by cutting 28 cabs, yet we’re paying close to $2Bn to buy 14?
What am I missing because they seem very expensive for SH at those prices.
I think it's been known for a while that the US costs per airframe and UK programme costs are formulated totally differently, so you're definitely not comparing fruit with fruit with that comparison - UK often includes support, training and spares costs in the same overall bill, sometimes along with simulators, whereas I'm not even sure the US considers the rubber on the tyres in what they say the airframe cost is!
Also, you're not comparing the same type of aircraft there, if you look at the options list that was in the FMS approval the H-47(ER) referred to above is definitely not a standard off the shelf F-model as used by the US Army.