How much dose a F-16 MLU cost and what do you get for the money. And have the Jordanian F-16 A/B’s had any upgrade work done

Once a again this is how the British come up with two figures that are so far apart please note that this is for Merlin but note also the costs for Typhoon and Harrier

The cost of an aircraft fleet

There are two tables – Full and Marginal costs. Full cost is the annual cost of everything to do with that airframe including all the support staff, buildings, etc divided by the total number of hours flown in a year. i.e. all direct and indirect costs.

The marginal cost is the cost of one more hour in the air ignoring all the indirect (fixed) costs, i.e. fuel and maintenance. Full cost per hour will vary with the number of hours flown, marginal will not.
For example, the following figures were indicated in the 2009-2010 period for a number of platforms:

Typhoon – Full £68716 Marginal £3780
Harrier GR9 – Full £35762 Marginal £3945
C-130 J – Full £11587 Marginal £1888
C-130K – Full £9924 Marginal £2132
C-17 – Full £42068 Marginal £4870

For the Merlin HM1, the Treasury came up with an admortised figure, which has become sadly quite famous, of £41,588 in answer to a question in Parliament.

However, according to the Defence Aircraft Capitation Rates the operating cost for just the machine is £3,162 per funded flying hour. A Sea King, for comparison, is reported at £3,183 per flying hour.
The same document, however, then adds on the ancillary costs to each aircraft, eg aircrew, Unit admin, admortization, Westland storage costs for spare parts for a minimum of six months after servicing requests, the cost of RAF Benson and the cost of the still recent restructuring of the Depth Mainteinance process and facility, the cast of thousands in the MoD and the 1000 men at Westland, and with amazing accuracy comes up with £41,588 for the Merlin HM1, around 34.000 for Merlin HC3 and £16,723 for the Sea King 4 and 7.(end)

Now this will play with some heads on this thread it shows how the USAF has different cost per hour for the same aircraft type and also show that here is any number of cost per hour out here again please note this is for FY97 to FY04

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/usaf/docs/hourcons.htm

Every government in the world makes up rules and brakes them at will that is just life as we know it

Again as said in the UK MPA Thread some time back the UK needs an MPA capability but first we need to set operational amies at home and over seas and then look at air-frames if the UK is looking at blue water work then really only P-8 will do but if it is coastal work then C-295 will work for a lot less money

Oh no! Even my tiny bit of Welsh ancestry is making my hand twitch towards weaponry at that! Careful, or Wales may declare independence.

Ah – I see Jonesy beat me to it.

All very sensible, IMO.

IIRC there’s a functioning EM catapult available which is much lighter & cheaper than EMALS, has been thoroughly tested at Reaper & above weights (could handle Mantis/Telemos), & is made in the UK. Needs shipboard integration, which is not a trivial task AFAIK, but could be worth it. Pencil EMKIT in for a QE refit, I say, & start the feasibility studies ASAP.

Sorry Wales that was a silly mistake

I will miss Simon always willing to stop and talk and find out what was going on or lend a hand when needed always pushing to make things happen he will be missed not only at North Weald but by many of the staff and cadets of Essex Wing ATC my thoughts are with his wife Lizzi and there young child

Simon say Hi to Norman and the gang for us strap your wings on and fly high

Darren

For me if they were to offer one type from the back list then they should look at the AV-8B harrier with a good number of navy’s looking at small carriers and LPH’s who one may not be allowed to buy or two can not afford F-35B I feel Harrier 11 could still be a good peace of kit and with a good number of Ex British air frames in storage it may just be do able