Japan's X-2 stealth fighter jet takes to the skies: $332 million prototype

MAILONLINE ^ | 22 April 2016 | VICTORIA WOOLLASTON

[CodeToad]

“The F-35 has a $90 million flyaway cost as of this year.”

That’s projected cost. Actual is over $166 million per copy.

[PreciousLiberty]

"That’s projected cost. Actual is over $166 million per copy."

From http://breakingdefense.com/2016/02/bogdan-predicts-f-35s-for-less-than-80m-engines-included/:

Now, Program Executive Officer Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan says the most common model of the plane, the F-35A, will hit $80 million to $85 million by 2019 and he expects the price will go lower, especially when it hits multi-year procurement in a few years. That price is in then-year dollars, and it includes an engine.

He estimated the next two lots, LRIPs 9 and 10, will come in at just about and then below $100 million a plane.

Your $166 million figure is from 2009. My $90 million should have been ~$100 million for 2016.

Note that $85 million in 2019 dollars is $80 million in 2016 dollars given 2% inflation.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II:

In July 2014, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and BAE Systems announced they would invest a combined $170 million in the program, which was anticipated to result in a savings of over $10 million per aircraft.

This initiative was said to have set the project on track for an $80M (including engine) price tag per aircraft (F-35A) by 2018, when full production is scheduled to begin.

and...

The U.S. Government estimates that in 2020 an "F-35 will cost some $85m each, or less than half of the cost of the initial units delivered in 2009. Adjusted to today’s dollars, the 2020 price would be $75m each."

and...

In 2014, the airframe cost went below $100 million for the first time, and the Air Force expected unit costs to fall.