At two hundred million per copy it should crap little gold bricks when the doors are opened. What a waste.
To be clear, fly-away cost for the jet alone is about 150Mil (http://www.saffm.hq.af.mil/shared/media/document/AFD-110211-038.pdf, pg 57 of 560). If you add all weapons systems and infrastructure to go along with it, then it runs about 192M.
If they kept to the original number they envisioned, the cost-per-unit would be a heck of a lot lower. . .I’m not a fan of the F-35, as I think the F-22 is by far the best. The F-22 internal weapons load equals that of the F-35. . .in order for the F-35 to carry more than the F-22 it must carry external ordinance, something that the F-22 can’t do. And if the F-35 does carry external weapons, this would remove any LO capability of the jet. LM over-sold the concept. Should have stayed with the full run of F-22 and re-vamped F-15E. F-22 to kick in the door and the F-15E’s to take iron downtown.