The problem I've been having is that nothing (budget, Defense Tech articles, wikipedia, military rags) matches up. I suspect that is by design. The $$$ quoted is documented in this forum.
Another complicating factor is cost + procurement v. fixed cost procurement. I understand
someone should pay the cost of design and prototyping; I just disagree it should be the taxpayer.
Here's the article quoting $330,000,000 a pop for the F-22 -->
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=259&topic_id=6808The article claims: But with a price tag of $130 million per plane — $330 million if you take into account research and development costs — critics wonder why millions more will have to be spent to fix corrosion problems and design flaws on some of the 104 stealth fighters delivered so far by the plane’s manufacturer, Lockheed Martin.
What is the true cost to the American taxpayer of an F-22 on June 1, 2007? How about on March 1, 2008? Since we're paying x amount of dollars for an F-22, what is the delivered cost for one plane? Are there economies of scale for multiple delivered aircraft?
Which leads to my next question. How much does and LCS or T-AKE ship cost? I've been trying to put the runaway costs in perspective.
Any help would be appreciated.