F/A-22 vs EF-2000 pricing related to GNP

Continuing in a way from the F/A-22 crash thread, let’s examine how much “right” the US has to be procuring the F/A-22. F/A-22 unit cost, right now, stands at $132 million USD, not $250 million. The cost of the EF-2000, for comparison, stands at 63 million Euro per, or around $84 million USD.

Now, if you look at the percentage of each aircraft’s cost as it relates to the buyer’s GNP, you get an idea of how much burden each particular aircraft places on that country’s budget and whatnot. Obviously the smaller the number, the better.

Let’s look at some hard numbers. These are the percentages of each country’s GNP needed for one EF-2000:

UK-0.006%
Germany-0.004%
Italy-0.007%
Spain-0.015%

Now, what is the same figure for the USA’s F/A-22?

0.001%

The F/A-22 would seem to be taking up a smaller percentage of our money than the EF-2000 is of the European nations monies.

Does that mean that the Europeans are more likely to use their aircraft in combat or start a war? Of course not, such a notion is uneducated and absurd. Economics does play into armed conflict, but it isn’t the only indicator, nor is it an all-perfect one either.

But:

And when you spend that sort of money, then you need a war. A war every 5 years. And that is exactly what has happened, and that is exactly why I am concerned.

Well, maybe you need to look around on your side of the pond for a bit first. If such things cause you to believe there will be a war, why haven’t either of the four EF-2000 partners gone to war every five years? They’re spending more per jet, percentage wise, than we are.

Defend a country, raise an army, maintain an airforce by all means but when a country spends 250 Million$ on a single aircraft and spends 400 Billion $ on it’s defence budget. Then I know as does everyone that the intentions behind such need not be the most noble.

Or, we just have more money and better, more expensive toys to buy with it. Bigger militaries means more weapon systems are needed. Our propensity for getting involved in things around the world also means we need a large military, yes, but I’d like to hear your explanation for why buying F/A-22s is not noble, and which country exactly you think we’re going to conquer with them.