In answering to JSFfan...
Hello you down under dudeness!
Perhaps seeing things from the other side of the world, make that upside down side of the world, numbers get reversed or scrambled. :-)
I do not pretend to know the whole story (and neither should others) because when it comes to the military, the governments that have a vested interest in keeping secrets and numbers low on a developing platform for obvious reasons, one should always take their "selling" numbers with a grain perhaps many grains of salt.
I for one do not believe your numbers. How could the new yet to be fully developed and far from being operational F-35 numbers be just a bit higher than the Super Hornet's numbers? BTW, it is said Boeing is ready to deal and sell the Super Hornet at a very good price these days so perhaps with a good order the F-18 could be purchased at a substantially lower price.
In regards to the F-35's fly away price a quick Google search with links to several US Government sites including the Pentagon's show their latest fly away price for the F-35A ranging from $125M to $165M per unit. Again I would tend to not believe even these prices because they are certainly low balling them to keep the US tax payers at bay.
This of course does not take into consideration that the price may further climb if partners like Canada drop out of the project by cancelling their own orders. The US itself may indeed reduce their own order because the price of the F-35 as gone ballistic. This again would bring the FAP of each unit even higher.
This of course is somewhat irrelevant to Canada. Many here feel that this "next generation" fighter is not required for our country because of the role our fighters need to perform. The whole "stealthy" aspect is over blown for our use IMHO. The Super Hornet is pretty stealthy itself perhaps not as much as the F-35 but then the F-35 is not as stealthy as the F-22.
Another concern about the F-35 is the noise it generates from that huge engine. It is said to be 2 times as noisy as the F-16 or F-15 aircrafts!
Also another major concern especially in Canada is the fact this aircraft is a single engine airplane. With our vast territory and much of it in inhospitable areas a twin engine aircraft is better suited and a lot safer for its crews. One of the major reasons the original F-18 won the fly off over its main rival, the F-16 in 1980 is the fact the military stated a two engine aircraft would be better/safer for its extended operation over Canada.
So why would that logic change 30 years later?