Sidenote: The above illustrates the silliness found in the US Dept of Defense...but if you think that we're the only ones that spend foolishly then I've got a bridge to sell you. Check out this example from Defense Aerospace that hits the Brits hard...
The £2,163 million price tag includes 14 aircraft as well as everything the squadron needs to operate them, including all associated support equipment and capital spares, but neither their weapons nor their fuel. (Other Royal Air Force fast jet squadrons comprise 12 aircraft). This works out to an average cost of £154.5 million ($234.9 million) per aircraft.Yeah. If you thought the Eurofighter was expensive then get a load of the F-35. What has me puzzled is that the usually frugal Brits aren't even batting an eye at the cost. Amazing.
WTF department...
ReplyDeletePlus the UK put billions into R&D.
ReplyDeleteThat compares with what the US Navy paid last year (2014) for F-35 B&C (lumped together). Go here (p. 1-7) to get the procurement number and Navy's portion of the spares, and it works out to $259 million per prototype airplane.
This chart from the Pentagon Comptroller illustrates the similar figures, a procurement unit cost of $188.5 million for the F-35A and $277.9 million for the F-35-B/C.
DeleteSo de Briganti understated the cost, adding almost another year to our Super Bowl ad buy.
DeleteYou can't make this up. From DefenseUpdate:
ReplyDeleteF-35 testes demonstrate Interoperability, Close Air Support
I'm seeing tweets that it didn't go well.--(I don't have a teevee)
ReplyDeleteWay to go @espn, milestone event for the #f35 program for the US military and you completely blew it. #probowl FAIL
But where is the F35 fly over? You just told us there would be the first ever F35 fly over and didn't deliver.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cdq-ROAAu2g
ReplyDelete"Pentagon claims PhotoShop not imvolved."
Delete$235M per is average if it included support throughout life. It's about the same as a late block F-15. Then you'll complain about capabilities, which I can't argue against, but the cost is about average.
ReplyDeleteNo it isn't, if you look at the budgets you see maintenance is paid for on a per year basis as it happens and as spares are consumed. As a rule of thumb lifetime costs are normally 2-3x the cost of a system, with fighterplanes they can easily cost 2-4M a year to maintain and operate, and that is with alot of costs still excluded.
DeleteThese prices people are talking about is just what it costs with all the supporting equipment, and training/logistics services that LM provides (for a fee). Stop being such a troll...
But I like it under the bridge! Lots of upskirts!
DeleteOn a more serious note, the article itself is a bit of a troll. He's making it sound like the aircraft were created and built specially for the Superbowl only. Now if after the flyby, they were sent to the scrapyard, he might have a point, but those planes are going elsewhere to serve for another 20 years.
You might as well compare the 200 million dollars 2 A-10s would cost if they were to fly by and count how many ads they can make. Or if a tank drove by, or a destroyer sailed by etc.
Manipulation by someone whose cause you support is still manipulation, and while the end sometimes justifies the means, it also tells a lot about the person doing the string pulling.
The stated unit procurement costs do not include sustainment.
DeleteBtw, if anyone wants to see how we celebrate the formation of and continuation of "The Republic"....with Barack Obama as the Chief Guest....its is happening live now. Tune in to whatever channel is showing that or see it on the Internet. Channels such as NDTV 24/7 and DD National might stream it live on their home pages or on Youtube.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/user/DoordarshanNational
DeleteThats the link, hope you guys like it.
In recent Dutch news it was claimed 'we' had a 'win fall' because despite recent problems the F35 remained 'affordable' at 4.5 billion euro's just to buy 37 of them.
ReplyDeleteTo show how affordable this is: Saab a few years ago offered to deliver 85 Gripens ( E/F) for €4.8 billion, including pilot training and maintenance to the Dutch Air Force for 30 years. This was guaranteed by the company and the Swedish Government!
85 is the number the Dutch air-force actually calculated as needing to fully replace the current F16's .
Day to day maintenance was not part of the deal, however there was a support- and logistic package for the lifetime of the fleet, as is normal in todays large weapons aquisitions. In the Norwegian case only the basic flyaway cost was guaranteed by the Swedes, so in all likelyhood the same would aply to the Dutch offer.
DeleteThis, the way I put it was how it was presented at that time to us, in the news. The Swedes, who before the Brazil and canceled Swiss deals really wanted and needed a first export sell were seemingly very keen to get 'us' aboard. I would not be surprised if there were hidden cost, but frankly I expect these also, if not more with the current F35 deal, which is not guaranteed! Even if you exclude the extras you still get almost 3 times the planes for the same money, in fact since I believe the F35 will still get more expensive .. probably a full 3 times the planes. Wile Gripen is not totally comparable with F35, it is not stealthy and might carry less load, it is a much better fighter and a lot cheaper to fly.
DeleteBut don't let it seem like I am a Saab lobbyist, its just the cheapest plane on offer that would work, I would very much prefer 50- 60 new F16's over 37 F35's also. The way it looks now, even the money pit Typhoon would be cheaper and in many ways more capable.