What Does an F-22 Cost?
By WINSLOW T. WHEELER On Wednesday, March 25, an F-22 crashed near Edwards Air Force Base, CA. Very sadly, the pilot was killed. The news articles surrounding this event contained some strange assertions about the cost of the F-22. The tragic event was apparently used to disseminate some booster-baloney. Possibly based on the price asserted in the Air Force’s “fact” sheet on the F-22 that was linked to a Pentagon “news” story on the crash, the cost per aircraft was typically described in many media articles as about $140 million. What utter hogwash. The latest “Selected Acquisition Report” from the Defense Department is the most definitive data available on the costs for the F-22. The SAR shows a “Current Estimate” for the F-22 program in “Then-Year” dollars of $64.540 billion, which includes both R&D and procurement. That $64.5 billion has bought a grand total of 184 aircraft. Do the arithmetic: $64.540/184 = $350.1. Total program unit price for one F-22, what approximates the “sticke
