Defense Aerospace recently published a list of costs for US aircraft and helicopters, extrapolated from the Pentagon’s latest Selected Acquisition Reports (SARs) tabled on August 10, 2006. A couple of important notes are in order to readers reviewing the figures, which will be different than the published acquisition costs per unit:
(1) All estimates include anticipated inflation allowances. Weapons programs are typically baselined at a specified year to help remove inflation as a comparison factor between weapons. On the other hand, budgeted figures over a program’s life are affected by inflation. Which figure is best depends on what you’re trying to measure.
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(2) The list’s price figures are calculated by dividing the total program cost by the number of units, which amortizes R&D costs and some support costs. That’s why the list’s calculations put the C-17 at $330.8 million, for instance, even though recent contracts indicate that Australia paid $195 million per plane for its C-17s.