Retirement of the F-117

[Kevy Baby]

Originally Posted by Ghoulish Delight

Don't forget the F-35 Joint strike fighter, which should be more like $60mil.

But even at $100mil+, at least it's not the B-2, which is in the $1 billion range.

The B-2 ended up being so expensive because the program was cut off at the knees with the end of the Cold War. The plan was for a couple hundred, which would have spread the development costs out more and brought the cost per plane down significantly.

I think the next large area of production development is/should be in the area of unmanned drones.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by Kevy Baby

The B-2 ended up being so expensive because the program was cut off at the knees with the end of the Cold War.

And considering that they've only been used in combat 3 times, probably a smart decision.

I seem to recall hearing at one point that the AirForce said that they didn't need any more than the 18 or so that they had, but that pressure to keep the manufacturing jobs lead to building that last couple that were slated. Don't know how true that story was.

Meanwhile, I just learned that a B-2 crashed last month taking off from Guam. First one lost.