This just in!
USAF finds out water is wet! (with the help of the Navy, which is now moving to the EA/18 platform)
I don’t see including cost of training pilots or maintenance personnel as a smart idea. Not because they shouldn’t count, but because you would have to make very important assumptions about retention rates. The only thing predictable about retention rates is that the services will guess wrong on them every time. Give me a fuel, consumables, parts whole life cost for x number of hours. Something you can chew on a while.
The Super Hornet program is a reverse example of the F-22 and probable costs of the F-35. With those two programs, as planned purchases have been cut, per aircraft costs have soared.
With the Super Hornet program, the addition of a dozen 4 plane squadrons drove down the per unit cost to the point where Super Hornets are now costing about $50-55 million a piece. Then the Aussies got some, then the Navy added some more.
F-35 per unit costs will continue to climb as more aircraft get cut from the buy.