How much do we normally pay for a frigate?
That depends on if you're married. If yes, your total average price is much much higher.
Last time I priced, it was about $20!
“How much do we normally pay for a frigate?”
I went looking for the answer, but it’s apparently like asking, how much does a two door car cost? You can buy a reconditioned American made frigate or destroyer for a few hundred million. I don’t know what’s included in the sale, presumably a few cases of Rustoleum. I’m guessing that the hull is one thing and the mission specific electronics and weapons are an entirely separate thing. I suspect the issue here is, the price is way too low for what the UK navy wants buy. That’s one reason there are too few bidders. Also, the navy is trying to use this scrap of bread to keep too many suppliers fed. The UK and Germany hardly have a military to speak of. Trump is right, they aren’t pulling their NATO weight. You can have socialism or a military, but not both.
I am guessing the navy has in mind a Porsche for the price of a Beatle and the companies bidding are proposing a Beatle.
Incidentally, during the Libya disaster, the UK announced it had fired all of its cruise missiles and didn’t have the money to buy more. (It was insane for them to get involved in the first place, and equally ridiculous that they both fired all their missiles and announced they didn’t have the money to buy more. I had to wonder just who was in charge there.)
The US Navy hasn't built a frigate in decades. They build carriers, destroyers, and those Littoral Combat Ships. No cruisers or frigates for a long time. But they are gearing up to finally go and start procurement of some new ones. Sources say navy expects cost to be no more than $950M per ship. that's expensive for a frigate, which are usually pretty low end ships with basic capability and simple mission profile. But this will be a very high end frigate compared to the old ones.
For comparison, the USCG National Security Cutters, which are sort of similar to the more traditional USN frigates, came in around $700M per ship. The five Norwegian Fridtjoh Nanssen frigates all together cost approx $500M each, ballpark.
There's a lot of variability here, clearly. But these UK ones in the $338M range sound really really cheap to me.