When compared to each other, Rafale cost and F35 cost may not look too different.
Germany “pegged” the price of its 35 units of F35 at 8.4 billion dollars.
India bought 36 Rafale jets for 8.7billion dollars.
Germany signed the deal in 2022. The 7.7% inflation corrected price puts German purchase at 9 billion dollars.
But India signed the deal n 2016. That is 27% more today as the deal was signed in Euros. So they actually agreed to pay 11billion dollars for 36 planes.
Both, German and Indian deals include weapons, maintenance, training and ancillaries.
Manufacturer Lockheed Martin is now set to seek local industry partners to help maintain the fleet later — if the base prep work gets done in time.
www.defensenews.com
These are initial first purchase costs for the planes. Now that certain costs have been covered, follow up orders should be comparatively less than the initial costs.
Over the years, how much each aircraft will cost is a matter of how much their respective airforces will abuse them or look after them. Also how much the purchasing country was shafted by the seller. (India seems have paid over the odds for the Rafale’s) . Nevertheless SAAB has done a study and:
For a fleet of 100 planes, over 37 years and 200flight hours per year:
EDIT:
According to above SAAB study, a country buying 40 f35 jets, is paying ~80 million dollars more every year than a country buying 40 Rafales. Yet in reality India already paid upfront 2 billion dollars more for 36 planes. I don’t want to go in to the compounded interest of 2 billion dollars over 37 years. But those Rafales are surely costing more than the F35s.
