Service life costs Su-30MKI vs F-16blk50.

Ok lets say hypothetically that an F-16 is $5000/h to run and an Su-30MKI twice as much at $10000/h. If you run them at 300hours a year for 25 years. So you would run them for about 7500h during their life

F-16blk50:Has a buying cost for foreign nations for around 70mn
Su-30MKI:Has a buying cost for foreign nations for 35mn(although has been gotten for less).

Operating costs
F-16blk50:7500*5000=37.5mn
Su-30MKI: =twice of that=75mn

Engine life
Su-30MKI:If Engine is 3000h, then you would have to replace it lets say 3 times(2 engines). so 3000*6=18mn
F016blk50:lets say it’s engine life is 4500h, and you’d have to replace it 2 times. Also lets say each engine costs 4.5mn(probably even more). 4.5*2=9mn

Add it up.
F-16blk50: Buying cost of 70mn+service life of 37.5mn+9mn of engine life=116.5mn at the end of life
Su-30MKI: Buying cost of 35mn + service life of 75mn + 18mn for engine=128mn.

So 116.5/128=91%

So an Su-30MKI is only 9% more expensive than F-16blk50 at the end of it’s life.

However something I did not take into account is the engine overhauls. I am really NOT sure how much F-16blk50’s or Su-30MKI’s engines cost to overhaul nor whats the time before overhauls but given India’s and Russia’s cheap labour I would not say it’s extreme.

So the MUCH MUCH MUCH MUCH more advanced Su-30MKI is only 9% more expensive than an F-16blk50 at the end of their lives. I think the F-16blk50 would have to be at least, and at least 40% cheaper to be equal to the Su-30MKI.

Note: remember that the Su-30MKI has TVC engines which are a little bitchy on overhauls and life and are more expensive, you can pick an Su-35 and compare it to an F-16 and I am sure it’s engines will be better than Su-30MKIs.