Damn, Warplanes Are Expensive
But some are way more costly to operate than others
The B-2 stealth bomber ain’t cheap, but in 2014 it wasn’t the most expensive plane to operate in the Air Force’s inventory. Not even nearly.
The Air Force’s 20 B-2s
were its second-costliest warplanes to keep flying last year. In 2014,
the B-2s flew 5,984 hours at a cost of $128,467 per hour. Counting
upgrades, each of the batwing bombers rang up an operations tab of
$38,946,292.
That
dubious distinction belongs to the E-4, a 747 that the flying branch
packed with computers, radios and other special gear so it can function
as a flying command post during a nuclear war.
The
Air Force possesses four E-4s. In 2014 they spent a combined 1,577
hours in the air. Each hour of flight set taxpayers back $154,717 for
fuel, parts and repairs. Add in modifications and R&D for upgrades
and each E-4 cost a staggering $62,878,208 to operate last year, roughly
as much as the African country of Malawi spent on its entire military.
Compare that to
the Air Force’s cheapest-to-operate planes—its training gliders.
The 35
TG-series gliders burned $3,987 per hour for a combined 5,234 hours in
the air in 2014.
Total ownership cost per glider was just $597,756,
equivalent to 11 times the income of the median American family.
The busiest planes in the Air Force are the drones—the 152 Predators and the 151 larger Reapers. On average, each Predator flew 1,274 hours and each Reaper flew 1,233 hours in 2014.
The
drones weren’t terribly expensive per hour—$3,998 for a Predator and
$3,219 for a Reaper.
But long sorties, and lots of them, plus
modifications drove the total ownership cost for a single Predator to
$5,137,841. A Reaper cost $4,056,567.
Compared to the robots, the Air Force’s manned fighters are practically lazy.
Each of 971 F-16 fighters flew just 200 hours in 2014, for an hourly
cost of $21,415 and a total ownership bill of $4,307,876 per plane.
The
187 F-22 stealth fighters compare even less favorably. The F-22s each
flew 161 hours in 2014, on average—and took the taxpayer for $53,084 per
hour in the air and $9,333,045 in total ownership cost.
Only
the C-17 airlifter works anywhere near as hard as the drones. The Air
Force has 222 of the four-engine transports. On average, each one flew a
surprising 823 hours last year—more than any other airlift type. It
took $25,343 to keep a C-17 in the air for one hour—or $21,018,494 for a
year of regular use, including enhancements.
The 2014 cost tables are the first to include data for the flying branch’s newest warplane, the much-maligned F-35.
The Air Force has 37 of the complex stealth fighters. Last year they
flew just 102 hours apiece, gobbling up $67,549 every 60 minutes, for an
annual ownership bill of $6,947,432 per plane.
The Air Force insists it must retire
tried-and-true A-10 attack planes to free up money for more F-35s, but
if the 2014 cost tables are any indication, it will take more than a few
A-10s to fund the new stealth jets.
That’s because the armored, gun-armed A-10s are cheap.
Each of the 298 attack jets flew 280 hours in 2014, at a cost of just
$19,041 per hour.
The public shelled out $5,337,984 for each
A-10—approximately as much as it spent operating a single Predator
drone. medium.com
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