The F-35A's price as reported in the SAR can be seen per production block and year. The cost to produce is absolutely never published but is monitored by the Pentagon as a whole. While it is true that Lockheed does the deal for the Airframe-Avionics-helmet and all missions systems the price in its contract does not include the engine which is contracted for (again this is normal practice because airframe+avionics_systems and engines are competed for separately) with its OEM but the final price published can easily be calculated based on
SAR data (which has been provided in the F-35 thread many times). The F-35A cost minus the engine was slightly below the $95 Million mark with a further reduction planned (3-4%) for the contracts being negotiated now. The Full rate of production bulk buy is aimed at reducing the cost of the Aircraft to between $80-$85 Million per CTOL INCLUDING THE ENGINE. These are Unit Fly-Away costs.
The Engine contract is always announced but the price per engine is never revealed so if one were to guess the current price of an F-35A at the Low Rate of Initial Production that is 1/5 (or nearabouts) of full scale production is around $8 million - $10 Million for the CTOL variant. Dividing the total engine contract by the number of engines procured is not a good indicator for per-engine cost because the total contract includes the STOVL propulsion system which can easily be 2-2.5 x the cost of the CTOL system.
Anyway, what the F-35A costs now is irrelevant there are no slots left for the 30-40's per year production ..The second multi-year production contract will be announced next year and is for more than 400 aircraft. The 2018 SAR data for example shows an airframe procurement cost of $4.7 Billion for the Air-force and another $770 Million for the engines coming to $90 Million for the CTOL-Recurring flyaway. This is for 60 aircraft , and these are projections..Actual cost negotiations over the last 3- 4 years have bettered the SAR data and it is based on those negotiations that the program office has set a goal of between $80-$85 Million ( A full $5 Million to $10 Million lower) recurring fly-away cost for the F-35A at the USAF procurement rate of 60 aircraft per year. 2018 orders are for 2020 deliveries. Lockheed Martin, and the engine maker Pratt and Whitney are required to sign a FIXED price contract for all the components (minus the concurrency work)..Again all concurrency jets are sold so all new orders be it for the USAF or any partner will include delivery of jets that do not need a single $ worth of concurrency (concurrency here means going back and replacing parts or components based on testing).
The current airframe price of $94.8 Million (Minus the engine) in LRIP 8 can be
compared to the LRIP price of $106 Million in LRIP5 just three years ago. Thats more than 10% drop primary attributed to touch labor reduction and the general learning curve which for complex fifth generation fighter can be in the three digits...LRIP8 to FRP1 will see more dramatic cost reductions coming primarily from economies of scale as the production rate rises to 150+ aircraft a year over the next 5 production years.
For FMS prices one can compare the size and scope of the South Korea FMS deal (that included weapons and listed exactly which ones and in what quantity) with that of the deal of the rafale for Qatar or Egypt that also including extras. The FMS contract signed by South Korea with the JPO includes ENGINES...(its the JPO that then signs another contract with the vendors)...I have posted that bit of information as well. The F-35 is not an option for the IAF geopolitical reasons, but there is absolutely no doubt that even without the technology transfer the rafale will at best end up costing as much to the IAF as the F-35 is to a South Korea and at worst it will cost much more. And South Korea is buying a quarter of its aircraft at the higher LRIP prices (lower production volumes).
Former ACM saying that! Isn't the IAF aware of overall defense spending and funds available? Or does throwing tantrums the most work in the armed forces to get the desired new toy?
