Thursday, December 11, 2014

2015 Budget Request Weapon Costs

From the Department of Defense 2015 Budget Request document published by the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense Comptroller (1) comes these weapon costs.  Note that the costs are for procurement only.  R&D costs are excluded.  Quantities and costs are requested and may by modified by Congress.  If you “disagree” with the costs, argue with the Comptroller of DoD, not me.


USAF  F-35A
2013  Qty=19            Cost=$2.9B  $153M each
2014  Qty=19            Cost=$3.4B  $179M each
2015  Qty=26            Cost=$4.0B  $154M each


USN  F-35B/C (breakout not specified)
2013  Qty=10            Cost=$2.0B  $200M each
2014  Qty=10            Cost=$2.5B  $250M each
2015  Qty=8              Cost=$2.3B  $287M each


USN  MQ-4 Triton (BAMS)
2013  Qty=3              Cost=$613M  $206M each


USN  P-8A Poseidon
2013  Qty=13            Cost=$2.6B  $200M each
2014  Qty=16            Cost=$3.6B  $225M each
2015  Qty=8              Cost=$2.1B  $262M each


USN  Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM)
2015  Qty=224         Cost=$337M $1.5M each


USN  Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM)
2015  Qty=104         Cost=$119M $1.1M each


USN  Standard Missile (SM-6)
2015  Qty=110         Cost=$446M $4.1M each


USN  Tomahawk Missile
2015  Qty=100         Cost=$194M $1.9M each


USN  Burke DDG
2013  Qty=3              Cost=$4.5B  $1.5B each
2014  Qty=1              Cost=$2.1B  $2.1B each
2015  Qty=2              Cost=$2.9B  $1.4B each


USN  LCS (includes unspecified module costs)
2013  Qty=4              Cost=$1.9B  $475M each
2014  Qty=4              Cost=$2.0B  $500M each
2015  Qty=3              Cost=$1.8B  $600M each


USN  Virginia SSN
2013  Qty=2              Cost=$4.8B  $2.4B each
2014  Qty=2              Cost=$6.6B  $3.3B each
2015  Qty=2              Cost=$6.1B  $3.0B each


USN  Ship to Shore Connector (SSC – LCAC Replacement)
2015  Qty=2              Cost=$123M $61M each



4 comments:

  1. Do the F-35 prices include the engine?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Unknown. My guess is yes but that's just a guess.

      Delete
  2. I may be wrong, but off the top of my head, nearly all those prices are somewhat higher than the "advertised" cost arn't they ?

    Beno

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Beno, they are, generally. There are several reasons.

      Advertised costs, as you put it, are the announced cost of the major single contract associated with purchase. What isn't mentioned is the long lead item contracts that were issued prior to the main one, the follow up smaller contracts that are issued to cover cost overruns and modifications. Final fitting out is also not covered in the main contract. Govt supplied equipment is not included in any contract. The main contract may not include all items - for example, ship contracts today are for hull only and the F-35 contract is without an engine.

      So, yes, the advertised contracts are less than what is listed here. I believe that these numbers more accurately reflect the real acquisition cost.

      Every article or investigator that digs into purchases and assembles all the contracts and costs associated with a given purchase inevitably winds up with these kinds of numbers as opposed to advertised costs.

      Did that help?

      Delete

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