Why is the Eurofighter Typhoon so expensive?

Question

The only other aircraft that can really stand up to it would be the F-22 Raptor which is over double its weight yet not that much more expensive

Could anyone explain this?

Answer 1

I'm sure I'll be corrected if I'm wrong but I think a lot of the cost of the Eurofighter has been the Research and Development. The Typhoon has been in development for much longer than the F-22. Also the Raptor is being built by an existing aircraft company whereas the Typhoon has been built by a consortium of companies over several countries. The duplication in infrastructure in each country adds cost as opposed to having the Raptor built in a single place.

The Typhoon has been in development since 1979 for a 1972 specification. The Raptor has been in development since 1986 to meet a 1981 requirement. The Typhoon has been generating cost over all that time that can only be recouped by increasing the purchase price.

The Raptor is still going to be a much more efficient aircraft though.

Answer 2

You dont like loaded questions do you?

who said that the Typhoon and the Raptor are comparable?

make a list of the requirements and performance characteristics, (wt, roll-rate in vert,horx, pitch, useful load, range, max maneuvering speed....etc.)

then ask the program cost questions.....I think you;ll see, like the other gentlemen on this question have said.....comparing dollars is not a way toproceed  with your inquiry.

heads up..

lima yankee

Answer 3

Mainly because its european.

Answer 4

At about 34 million US$ the Su-35 is a better package than the Typhoon.

The unit price of a fighter takes into consideration its development cost. The Raptor had government funding for this (28 billion US$ for research), so the factory price comes much lower. In fact, the unit price of a Raptor is shown as much less. By 2006 the total program had consumed 62 billion US$. If you divide this by the number of fighters the USAF will procure, the pricing comes to a staggering 360 million US$ per Raptor.

The Raptor can comprehensively whack the Typhoon and thats because of the high amount of funding that had gone into its R&D.

The Russians benefitted from the airframe experience of the Su-27/30 family. A good chunk of the funding is consumed by airframe R&D, or in other words the quest for stealth and supermaneuverability. The Russians didnt bother to do much on stealth and the non-thrust vectoring base Flanker was agile enough, so they have their highly effective but cheap fighter.

Never believe absolute numbers.

Answer 5

The costs for both planes include:

-Extremely maneuverable and durable airframes

-Powerful engines

-Radar systems

-Enhanced, yet durable Electronics to run all the systems

Modern jet fighters are quite expensive, no matter where they are from.

Answer 6

That's the price to be the best. As far as technology goes, we are always limited to what we are willing to pay (ie, research, development, testing, production), Wait till we start building military aircraft that are spacebound and check the prices on those babies.