JSFfan...just...just...
*sigh*
Firstly, Super Hornet doesn't come with IRST, plus that's a two year old report of what is probably three year old information.
Secondly, It was widely reported that PEO GEN Bogdan told Australian media at the Avalon Airshow on February 28 that he expects an MYP F-35A to ballpark around US$92m including engine. Information given to Australian program officials and decision makers on the same visit mirrors this number.
I realise this is a long way from the ~$50m numbers being bandied around in the early days, but it's also a lot less than some of the numbers being thrown about by the doomsayers too.
Regardless of what Boeing says, you won't get much change out of US$83m for an FMS F/A-18F including EO/IR pod, tanks, pylons, LAUs, RWR etc.
But as I and others have already stated, we need to stop looking at the unit cost and look instead at the project cost. e.g...
http://www.dsca.mil/PressReleases/36...orea_13-10.pdf &
http://www.dsca.mil/PressReleases/36...alia_13-05.pdf
Look at what these proposals include...you can see that the Korean F-35As won't cost $180m each any more than the Australian Super Hornets will cost $154m each. PLUS, Australia already has Super Hornet infrastructure and training devices & syllabus in place, whereas the Koreans are starting their F-35 fleet from scratch.