PPRuNe Forums - View Single Post - Well done RAF in Libya but also RA RA Crusaders!
Old 12th Jul 2011, 21:53
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Question_Answer
 
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FODPlod,

The per hour costs quoted in Hansard will relate to the Whole Life Costs of the aircraft through the entire (25+ years of the programme) including the equipment, personnel, infrastructure, training etc. and all other peacetime costs. These are already paid for/budget out of the respective MOD aircraft Project Teams/Top Level Budget holders. Hansard already notes that given the relatively new status of Typhoon and the number of flying hours achieved to date, it makes the cost per flying hour look artificially high and advises that it expects this figure to come back inline with Tornado etc. as in-service status continues.

The additional operational costs for Libya and other contingent operations will be paid for out of the Treasury coffers, therefore they "only" need to cover the additional marginal costs, namely fuel, other consumables and any charges or expenses (basing, ATC?). Therefore I am using my engineering judgement (I have no firm data) that the marginal flying cost per hour of the FJ and ME aircraft is probably more like £10k per hour.

Using your previous figures, this would give over 50 flying hours per day across the flying programme, so enough for a couple of 4-ships and some multi engine activity.

Hope this helps. QA
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