If more countries buys the plane, the costs go down. Simple economies of scale.
If you only build 183 of something, the costs will be exorbitant.
It’s supposed to cost about a billion dollars to design and produce a new car from the ground up. If a car maker only sold 183 of the car, each unit would have to cost more than $5 million to cover the development costs, even if the car was supposed to sell for $25k.
We should have built a lot more F-22s and allowed some close allies to purchase them.
Funny how they buy more numbers of a really good and well proven airplane that still has tricks up its sleeve. The 15 can be just about as stealthy as the 35 and have all the same avionics plus the look around and look through capability.
It goes further and carries more and of course it should since it is a bigger airplane with two engines that could be upgraded.
That’s what supporters keep saying.
But the costs keep going up, not down.
Facts are often inconvenient things.