Yeah it is supoose to be a good replacement for alot of aircraft in all of the branches. I heard it may replace some of the Harriers because the fact they are like the deadliest aircraft we own.

Originally Posted by egoz

the unit cost of the F-35 is $28mil, compared to the F/A-18 E/F at $57 mil. so in theory the F-35 is a lot cheaper. they designed the plane to be low maintenance anyway.

If true, that's TOO cheap.

A SU-30MKK costs 50 milloin USD, PRC has about 70.
A Su-27MK costs about 30 million USD, PRC got about 200.
J-10 costs about 30 million USD.

I heard F/A-22 and JSF costs about 100 million USD.

Originally Posted by FlyingFrog

If true, that's TOO cheap.

A SU-30MKK costs 50 milloin USD, PRC has about 70.
A Su-27MK costs about 30 million USD, PRC got about 200.
J-10 costs about 30 million USD.

I heard F/A-22 and JSF costs about 100 million USD.

http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...craft/f-35.htm
http://www.globalaircraft.org/planes/x-35_jsf.pl
there seems to be a discrepency in the prices, but they are still both pretty low, one site shows $28 and the other $37.
but the cost depends on the version. AF version is $37, Marine version (V/STOL) $46, and Navy $48.

Thanks for the links.

But it really bothers me tht F/A-22 can be so cheap.

I just found:

The other part is that, at a cost of about $260m (£142m) each, the Raptor is designed to fight a potential Soviet enemy that no longer exists...
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=62692

Originally Posted by FlyingFrog

The other part is that, at a cost of about $260m (£142m) each, the Raptor is designed to fight a potential Soviet enemy that no longer exists...
http://forum.axishistory.com/viewtopic.php?t=62692

The Congress and military has realized that which is why they've cut production numbers by more than 50% since the beginning of the program. Which is also why the unit cost has sky rocketed. If you're going to produce something in smaller numbers it's obviously going to cost more.

Yeah, unit costs mean total costs to produce all the planes divided by the number of planes built, hence why the B-2 was so expensive per plane, it was supposed to be mass produced but that never happened. So if we built alot of JSF's the costs will go down, and it is supposed to replace tens of thousands of aircraft currently in use. Plus the fact that we built one plane for all these roles made it cheaper also.

If F-22 is mass produced, the price would go down to around $40M, I believe that.

Just FYI:

Unit cost:
F-16A/B , $14.6 million
F-16C/D, $18.8 million

Can the price drop from $ 253 million per piece to a mere $ 40 million ?, I doubt it.

Originally Posted by Xion

Can the price drop from $ 253 million per piece to a mere $ 40 million ?, I doubt it.

$253 million each? I think your numbers are way off. The highest I have ever seen is $180 million each, and if we start mass producing them the cost will plummet becuase then the denomenator in the equation will be growing faster than the numerator, which means a lower costs per.

I can very explicitly remember it was 253 million dollars per piece, the most expensive fighter aircraft ever made.It was in the newspapers here.Even if they start producing it in mass, I don't think it will plummet down to 40 million dollars.It will still be very expensive.