Russia is making and using most of its own weapons and they work quite well.
$3 billion for 12 planes makes each plane cost roughly $250 million dollars which is a rip off for the Rafael fighter. Somebody is getting their beak wet and bloody in this deal. The Serbians should hang their leadership over this fiasco.
I wouldn't be surprised if that price includes spares, test equipment, and maintenance training.
“$3 billion for 12 planes makes each plane cost roughly $250 million dollars which is a rip off for the Rafael fighter. Somebody is getting their beak wet and bloody in this deal. The Serbians should hang their leadership over this fiasco.”
It’s not possible to take the total number and divide by the number of planes to determine the cost. This isn’t buying a car. The deal will include spares, software updates, test equipment, factory support and any number of other items. The deal likely includes a weapons package of missiles, bombs, targeting pods, electronic countermeasures pods and a suite of defensive addons. Every one of those will come with test stations, factory support, upgrade packages, software and other items. People tend to think of missiles, as an example, as bullets. That’s not the case. Many missiles are very complex systems that are interoperable with other satellite and ground assets, which also need their own maintenance and support. The actual cost of the aircraft themselves may be a much smaller percentage of the overall cost.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic represents Serbians like Joe Biden represents Americans: considerably less than half of them.
Hopefully, Serbians can elect a President who is on their side instead of on his knees to the West.
Ping to Honorary Serb and Lightman.
The deal will include a lot more than just the planes. Training, maintenance, spares. These things are sold in a package deal.
It’s never just an airframe that is sold in these deals and we don’t know how much munitions and other support infrastructure is included.