Trillion-Dollar Stealth Fighter Cleared for Flight Training ~ Why did it cost that much?

[JEMC]

osamanobama said:

Marks said:
So they're about $14-15 trillion in debt but they can afford another trillion on new planes? Holy shit that's messed up dude.

it will cost $1 trillion to buy 2,500 jets, fly them, maintain them, etc over 50 years.

really not that much when you think about it, these planes will be viable for 50 years, before they need a major successor.

each Jet costs roughly 122million to make currently.

also the F-35, is set to replace the F-16, A-10, and the F/A-18, and others so again we will be decomishoning many of our older fleets (which saves money), and started this program in its place.

and if you think about it, these are a hell of a lot cheaper than our B-2 bombers, which cost like $800million to make each (we only have like 20 of these).

of course this is a completely different type of plane. with completely different objectives.

@bolded. I don't know if the US Navy have changed their minds, but I doubt the F-35 will replace their F/A-18s. They always go with planes with 2 engines for safety purposes, landing in an aircraft carrier is a lot harder than landing on the ground so they go with planes with 2 engines to minimize incedents with malfuntioning/damaged engines. That's how the F/A-18 were "born", the YF-17 was the looser of the contract that gave birth to the F-16 but the Navy refused to adopt it and choosed and further developed the looser YF-17 (with 2 jet engines) until it became the F/A-18.

About the costs, when the F-15 was introduced its cost was around 50 millions. Now it's +100 due to many factors but specially electronics and up-to-date upgrades . They have upgraded/replaced the radar many, many times and that made it more and more expensive. And the same will happen with the F-35, those 122 million for the F-35A will go up to 150 before 2020 with the F-35D.