fuel2nose good argument, I went to google, searched "merlin helicopter project cost" and found :
http://www.mod.uk/dpa/projects/merlin.htm
Just for fun lets suppose we divide the big number (4.65 billion GBP) by the small one (44) ?
I guess, being an official government website, the project cost figure includes research, development, surface combatant modifications, hangars shoreside, simulators, stores, training, avionics, personnel, manufacturer profit etc etc over the past many years
Is that not the way to compute true unit cost ?
Would keep Thomas Coupling in Bentley "estates" for a while !!