Originally Posted by
Hilife
I don't know the source of this quote, but it's clearly a long way off the mark!
Not at all. You can purchase an airworthy restricted category UH-60A for less than $3m.
- any military BH procurement will include additional through life costs that will escalate the apparent unit costs.
ALL, commercial or military helicopter procurements have through life costs.
The rule of thumb is that the platform acquisition cost is about a third of the 'Total Life Cost (TLC).
TLC’s would include the initial purchase price, then costs associated with scheduled and corrective maintenance, repairs, refurbishment, overhauls, etc, account for the additional two thirds of costings incurred for the remainder of the helicopter’s ‘In-Service’ life.
They stopped making UH-60As 34 years ago, so I'm not sure why that is even a conversation - clearly this programme will be buying new-build aircraft.
Of course civilian aircraft have TLCs, but they are not quoted when discussing purchase costs in the same way as a military procurement programme. They are more like cars - you just quote the sticker price, which is paid from CAPEX, and then budget the spares and maintenance costs (usually via a form of PBH) to be paid out of OPEX.