The Pentagon estimates it will cost about $30,000 per hour to operate the F-35, in large part due to the cost of fuel.
Although, given all the unreliable systems, if most of that is fuel, I expect the cost per flying hour to be much more. But let us explore their claim.
65 aircraft: 300 flight hours per year; $30,000 per flight hour; 30 years.
$17.5B
That is a lot more than what the DND stated for lifetime costs.
3 comments:
Compare these numbers to the Saab Gripen:
Gripen C/D - $3000 per flight hour
Gripen NG - $5000 per flight hour
The first 100 Gripen delivered to the Swedish AF including ALL development costs: $15 Billion dollars total.
BTW - that's in today's dollars unlike the bullshit we usually see from the JSF Program!
The DND operational numbers are not believable at all. Based on the $30K number it represents only 128 hrs per plane per year.
USAF Raptor pilots only fly 10-12 hrs a month, so if each pilot had his own jet, it would be about the same...
JRL
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