minorite
If you compare it in size to a civilian aircraft, it is close to a Boeing 777-200, not in external dimensions, but in Max Take Off Weight, which is the true measure of the size of an aircraft. A Boeing 777-200 costs between 180 and 240 million dollars. The C-17 is in line with its civilian counterparts as far as price.
Comparing a C-17 to a 777 based on MTOW? How about runway length? How about outsize loads? How about defensive aids? How about a ramp and how much weight can the floor take? Can you put it on a dirt strip. Do me a favour. Maybe we should just buy Transat's 310s and that will do eh?
The RAAF, RAF #5 and CF took some of the last available slots on the line *which had already had parts ordered* so Boeing would have been left with white tails if they hadn't taken them. I imagine Boeing didn't have much to leverage the price with.
Re: the Ukraine lease - will those 1/50 cost leases have the same "no loud noises nearby" clauses as the initial and soon to be done RAF leases to which you refer? RAF only leased because they needed an A400M stopgap - then they were flying the crap out of them, the A400M slipped to the right and the RAF AT requirement mushroomed.
As for the NATO deal - NATO as a grouping aren't buying in the way I read it - 13 NATO member countries are. The SALIS deal remains in place. Canada does not appear to be participating.
Oh and as for "why the sudden interest in C-17" - well, look at a map of Afg. and point out the seaports. Previous hotspots like Sierra Leone and Iraq have them - rock up with carriers and assault ships, secure them and offload. Afg doesn't.