posted on Dec, 24 2018 @ 05:32 PM
a reply to:
anzha
Doesn't cost the US as much as giving them new build F-16's, for example.
Operations costs are spread out over the years, so presumably if they got the right deal (ie Military Assistance money deferring part or all of the
acquisition costs), the Phillipines might be a lot happier paying ~$10M a year to operate 30 free F-15's than paying $50M a piece upfront hard
currency for 30 Su-27's along with ~$5M a year operating costs.
Even at double the operating costs,it takes 30 years for the F-15 operating costs to equal what you'd pay for buying and operating the Sukhois. 15
years to reach the ~$1.5billion costs of simply buying (not figuring any operating costs) the Sukhois. Takes another 15 years for the operating cost
savings to catch and overtake the Eagle fleet to begin "saving" money (I'm just using it as an example bc it's roughly half the operating cost so
makes easy math. I also assumed ~120hrs a year or 12 hrs a month to get $10 and $5M a year for the same reasons. Reasonably likely figure, but with a
lot more hours the Sukhoi could catch up quicker). Using those same baseline numbers a $50M x 30 F-16 buy would take the same time for the $1.5B
upfront to equal out, but you'd catch up more quickly after that because the operating costs are a third or so of the F-15's.
Everyone prefers deferring costs to paying upfront. So it might be reasonably attractive to them. And keeps the money rolling in house, so to
speak.
edit on 24-12-2018 by RadioRobert because: (no reason given)