I saw this in the digital Popular Mechanics magazine. I thought some folks in this forum might be interested in seeing it. Enjoy
Cost to fly US military aircraft
- Thread starter Snagglefoot
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What might be interesting is the details behind the facts. Does that assume a fixed number of usage hours then scrapping, thus that with initial purchase gets depreciated cost per hour? Fuel burn might be easy. Crew training time? takes months (years?) to get pilot's certified—but what about support crew?
supply chains etc…
Still. Not a bad comparison as to why something might be more feasible for a mission than something else.
supply chains etc…
Still. Not a bad comparison as to why something might be more feasible for a mission than something else.
I checked the magazine but this was basically a short factoid insert with no backup data on how the numbers were derived. 
One could try that 2022 government report for more info.
One could try that 2022 government report for more info.We could've used biplanes in Afghanistan and the result would've been the same.
Would've been really unfortunate if the Taliban's jets or helicopters took out a... oh, wait
The derivation of those estimates is more interesting than the final number. How do they account for maintenance costs? Does it include parts and labor? Airframe life amortization? Support, like basing, ramp space, hangar requirements? Pilot cost?
Magazines, newspapers and the Tv [ most everything ] should be not considered 100% fact , just entertainment. That being said aircraft is a Latin word for expensive,
I work at a public shipyard and they say it takes so many hundreds-of-thousands of "man days" to overhaul a boat. Divide that by hours underwater, miles travelled, missions etc, multiply by salary for the overhaul, then add what they pay the sailors, etc and get yourself all kinds of numbers.
It's all tracked by job order, which is okay, but the DoD failed its first audit in a while, so take away from that what you will...
It's all tracked by job order, which is okay, but the DoD failed its first audit in a while, so take away from that what you will...
It looks like may be typos or just completely wrong.
Bell AH-1Z operating costs – MILMAG
Under Secretary of Defense (Comptroller) Office of the US Department of Defense, which exercises civil supervision control over defence expenses in the US, produces yearly reports containing detailed values of direct costs per one hour of flight the defense budget bears, and thus the US...
milmag.pl
A list of operating costs of AH-1Z helicopter when compared with its current main competitor of the brand new AH-64E Apache/Guardian machines, seem s to be interesting as well. A few years ago, in the period of 2015 – 2016, the cost of an hour of flight of the Guardian’s predecessor – AH-64D Apache Longbow – was basically as much as in the case of Super Cobra. In 2020 – 2021 reports, the cost of Guardian’s operations was approximately USD 6,300 per hour of flight, or about 25% less than in the case of AH-64D – USD 8,400 per hour of flight.
-1Z Viper with the costs at the level of USD 4,500 per hour of flight in the report on 2022, remains the cheapest combat helicopter offered by the US Air Industry. In comparison with AH-64E – USD 6,500 per hour of flight – the cost of its operation is – by approximately 30% – lower lower than in case of the latter.
CleanSump
Site Donor 2022
I used to pay for test flights in another life long ago and currently manage sustainment of an older aircraft.
That article is averaging every cost to operate the aircraft from cradle to grave.
The direct maintenance costs are straight forward, recorded by the maintenance personnel on forms that include consumables, hours to perform, replacement parts from washers to expensive avionics boxes. That's straightforward.
But, the overall cost in the article seems to be including everything, averaging over the life of the airframe the cost of replacement parts, scheduled overhauls, offices like mine who oversee the total sustainment, depots doing engineering, gov parts repair, contract repair vendors, DoD offices we never think of until you get the bill, maintaining the facilities used (like repairing the building, electric and water bills) etc. And weird stuff, like we pay the USAF and US Army for support services and buy desks and chairs for classrooms.
It's a big big picture in the that $88k per flight hour.
The authors would have to define it better.
I would argue exactly the same, piolet is on payroll either way. Contracts to purchase so much jet fuel a year. Ordinance being already purchased whether it's used or sets on a shelf until it degrades.
Also these flights cost nothing compared to the size of the miliary budget, doubtful it even shows as a rounding error when subtracted from the National Defense Authorization Act.
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Yes all this. And also the cost of not having them in the first place.
Sounds like you work for the defense industry
What ? Specify less fuel in the contracts. The weaponry is a different matter... If needed, sure they can "order" more but it might take a while to get.
CleanSump
Site Donor 2022
You got an answer from someone who actually pays the bills, but continue to speculate.
BITOG, got to love it.
BITOG, got to love it.
Probably has a minimum purchase requirement. "We can always buy more, but we must buy at least this much" type of contract.Sounds like you work for the defense industry
What ? Specify less fuel in the contracts. The weaponry is a different matter... If needed, sure they can "order" more but it might take a while to get.
