Nice find. That explains the pricetag. Not per unit at all apparently.

It’s never per unit.. ancilliary items like that can be found in many other contracts.. but 100mil for an Su-35S ain’t that bad, Algeria has paid that much for follow-on order of the Su-30MKA.

How would the US get their hands on an MKI?

Many? It accelerates and climbs a bit faster and there may be certain parts of the envelope where it turns slightly better. BUT the advantages are very minor in an apples and apples comparison (both configured for equal combat persistence – a 50% fuel comparison is nonsense, considering the difference in fuel fraction).

Then again, there is arguably nothing wrong with its performance – it likely does what the customer wanted (though if the latter specified that kind of range it wasn’t the best thought out of requirements, hence arguably…). Cost is the issue, a comparison with its contemporaries shows that the state of the art should have allowed such capabilities to be packaged into a smaller, single-engined and hence cheaper airframe.

The doctrine for VKS says no single-engine fighters.. even their new trainers have two engines…

Well, it flew combat air patrols and fighter escorts missions, but I don’t think it carried out any strike missions itself – certainly didn’t beat the crap out of anyone? Over 250 F-35s have already been delivered already flying with almost half a dozen countries and it’s only now officially entering service.

What you THINK is irrelevant.. If you bothered to spend mere three minutes searching, you would not have posted this message, anymore..

The basic idea is 80 years old.. patented in 1937.. the question is where is it being deployed..

This is fantastic stuff, many thanks for posting.. I find some things really surprising (FY2017 numbers)

F-35C – $165.3 mil a pop without RDT&E, awfully lot
F-35A – $116.2 mil a pop without RDT&E, better.. frankly, can’t understand the FIFTY mil price difference between A and C.. for what? landing gear and tailhook?
AH-64E new-built – $35.4 mil a pop, excellent value for the price, I think
UH-60M – $24.6 mil a pop
UH-1Y – $34.0 mil a pop, shouldn’t the USMC stuff be actually cheaper ??!!
CH-53K – $218.5 mil a poop, without RDT&E.. I know it’s LRIP, but… WHAT ????!!!
Superbug – $96.3 mil a pop, surprisingly expensive, IMHO
AIM-120D – $1.37 mil for USAF, $1.26 mil for US NAVY, any particular reason for the price difference?
SM-6 missile – $4.35 mil a pop, WOOOW, that’s a huuuuge price tag for an old SM-2 with AMRAAM seeker

I still see the Meteor as a silver bullet, with its price tag leaving plenty of room for AMRAAM.. Time will tell..