a reply to:
mightmight
No doubt the Super Hornet is good value, however the MYP III Contract awarded to Boeing would not have included required parts such as the engines.
There is no way that the Super Hornet was produced for that little ($43 million).
The US Navy has awarded a US$5.297bn (A$5.5bn) contract to Boeing for the delivery of 66 F/A-18E/F Super Hornets and 58 EA-18G Growlers under a
Multi Year Procurement (MYP) from FY2012 to 2015.
Separate contracts are expected to be announced for the supply of F414 engines from GE, and radars and other sensors from Raytheon.
australianaviation.com.au...
Wikipedia quotes the DoD budget and lists unit cost for the Super Hornet at ~$70 million in 2017 dollars. iirc, several years ago it was about $60-65
million "fly-away" for the Super Hornet around 2012.
The
SAR also lists the MYP III contract as "Airframe MYP III"
and lists the engines separately.
Funny thing, if you go go to the F-35 SAR (2018) and go to the Unit Recurring Flyaway pages then you get:
F-35A is overall $67.7 million (excluding engine) plus $10.9 million for engine. Total: $78.6 million (BY 2012)
F-35B is overall $77.1 million (excluding engine) plus $26.7 million for engine. Total: $103.8 million (BY 2012)
F-35C is overall $78.1 million (excluding engine) plus $11.0 million for engine. Total: $89.1 million (BY 2012)
Note: These figures are for baseline jets over the life of the program including LRIP aircraft. Actual cost will vary.
My estimate, using these figures, and assuming a Super Hornet is $65 million 2012 dollars:
F-35A is 20-25% more expensive than the Super Hornet
F-35B is 60% more expensive than the Super Hornet.
F-35C is 40% more expensive than the Super Hornet.
Of course, the Super Hornet cannot STOVL. And of course, if the Super Hornet were being procured at the rates the F-35A is, it would be cheaper.
Still, I think the value proposition for the F-35A is clear, the F-35B is incomparable to anything in production, but it's far less clear with the
F-35C.
Funny thing though, if you go into the final Super Hornet SAR and 2018 SAR you get the following
If you compare Program Acquisition Unit Cost (PAUC) and Average Procurement Unit Cost (APUC)
F-35 (all variants): 109.950, 89.926 (2012 dollars)
Super Hornet (excluding Growler): 82.927, 72.247 (2000 dollars)
if we use inflation to take the 2000 dollars to 2012 dollars, we get:
Super Hornet (excluding Growler): $110.57, $96.33 (2012 dollars)
I didn't use the Then-Year dollars, because each aircraft will be produced over different eras. Otherwise, I have no idea how comparable these figures
are!
To be slightly on topic, we have to remember that the USMC doesn't operate the Super Hornet. What the USMC guy was referring to was that the aging
classic Hornet fleet is expensive to maintain and has been run into the ground.
edit on 29/1/18 by C0bzz because: (no reason given)