Why? Because the US paid 2013$21 billion for 210 aircraft back in 2000, with said bells and whistles included. And the most recent contract for 182 F18/EA18 came in at 2013$16 billion, again with said bells and whistles included.
Meanwhile, Norway buys 6 aircraft for $2.2 billion and are expected to shell out 5 times that to get a measely 50