Why do satellites/fighter-jets/etc cost so much to build?

I think with something like a stealth bomber they take the entire cost of research, testing, prototypes and tooling the factory and divide it by the number of bombers they build, which is very few compared to most manufactured items. 21 in the case of the B2.
 
monkeygremlin said:
I think with something like a stealth bomber they take the entire cost of research, testing, prototypes and tooling the factory and divide it by the number of bombers they build, which is very few compared to most manufactured items. 21 in the case of the B2.
Click to expand...

Yup

The cost of the B-2 program in 1994 dollars was reported at $727 million per plane; however, the total cost of the program with development, spares, and facilities averaged over $2.1 billion per plane as of 1997 according to the B-2 program office
Click to expand...
 
geuben said:
I think most of it comes from Research and Development costs.

Edit: Although each Veyron costs £5million to actually make, so material costs might be quite high on certain things.
Click to expand...
Doesn't that include the R&D, spread over a number of cars?

I really don't see how even a Veyron can cost £5 million to build.
 
Taking the Space Shuttle as another example.

There are 22 Reinforced Carbon-Carbon (RCC) panels on the leading edge of each wing which are required for the extreme temperatures experienced during re-entry. They cost $800,000 each, which is mainly attributed to long heat treatment during production.
 
Angilion said:
Doesn't that include the R&D, spread over a number of cars?

I really don't see how even a Veyron can cost £5 million to build.
Click to expand...

the Indicator leavers cost something like 4k to make if i remember from the top gear episode right.
 
The B2 Steath Bomber, the main shell is one single part (carbon?) the bits (engines and stuff) are then put inside it.

backwards pretty much to any other plane.
 
With space vehicles, a very large proportion comes from R&D i'm told.

Perhaps not so much now as we use computed modelling so much more, but previousely it wouldn't be unheard of for NASA to build bespoke testing centres specifically for one craft, including mightly expensive wind tunnel flow testing facilities.

Also the fact they tend to line these things with more precious metals than even a woman could handle may not help ;)

Darned pesky clever minded scientists add to the cost as well, always demanding proper employment schemes and stuff...
 
The manufacturing machines I work on cost 13million each.

To look at them, you would think they are 'worth' about 300 grand. A simple 4mm screw for some parts of them costs around £200. A simple 50cm cable with a simple sinlge connector on each end costs £780 - and it uses about 50 of them. A red laser diode (the same as you get in a £2.00 laser pointer in the market) costs nearly £1000 for the machine. And all it does is shine the same red laser beam as your laser pointer - same voltage/power/wavelength and make (to detect where some silicon wafers are in a cassette)

As was stated, the actual design and developement of the machine is the costly bit. For it to actually work the way we need it to work takes a few years of research, re-testing and re-designing by the firm that builds the machine. They literally have a team of over 100 people bulding, testing and re-testing designing the machines we need.

At the end of it, you have a very expensive piece of metal. In the sceme of things though, that £13million outlay by us, will be returned many times over (one of the reasons our company purchased another 6 of them to add to the other 120+ machines worth over £1million we have in the factory)
 
Last edited:
Wardie said:
I work for BAE who build the Astute Class submarines, until you get to see just how complicated the entire build process is for things like this it can be hard to appreciate how much money and time is actually required.

It's actually quite amazing :)
Click to expand...

My Dad used to work for BAE Systems...then moved to the DPA or something to be a TL.
 
Research and development cost. If it cost £10 billion to design a fighter and you produce only 1000 of them each one going to cost you £10 million each just to cover the R&D cost let alone the money to build the actual fighter. On top of that for fighter and aircraft in generally you just don't produce many and small production runs are normally more expensive per unit as it not worth the money to invest in automating and streamlining the production.
 
Wardie said:
I work for BAE who build the Astute Class submarines, until you get to see just how complicated the entire build process is for things like this it can be hard to appreciate how much money and time is actually required.

It's actually quite amazing :)
Click to expand...

Yeah, place i work made the bearings for them. Good old MOD, wanted them painted silver. What a great colour.
 
divosuk said:
The manufacturing machines I work on cost 13million each.

To look at them, you would think they are 'worth' about 300 grand. A simple 4mm screw for some parts of them costs around £200. A simple 50cm cable with a simple sinlge connector on each end costs £780 - and it uses about 50 of them. A red laser diode (the same as you get in a £2.00 laser pointer in the market) costs nearly £1000 for the machine. And all it does is shine the same red laser beam as your laser pointer - same voltage/power/wavelength and make (to detect where some silicon wafers are in a cassette)

As was stated, the actual design and developement of the machine is the costly bit. For it to actually work the way we need it to work takes a few years of research, re-testing and re-designing by the firm that builds the machine. They literally have a team of over 100 people bulding, testing and re-testing designing the machines we need.

At the end of it, you have a very expensive piece of metal. In the sceme of things though, that £13million outlay by us, will be returned many times over (one of the reasons our company purchased another 6 of them to add to the other 120+ machines worth over £1million we have in the factory)
Click to expand...

where do you work?
 
I remember reading a report on 'Sticker price' for fourth generation fighter aircraft.
It said that normally development costs are absorbed by sales of low rate initial production (LRIP) aircraft and once in full production companies make their money in maintenance and spares and training and so on.
It suggested that America may never find an export market for the F22 since the purchasers would be buying LRIP aircraft and effectively subsidising their development costs.
 
We can scale this down as much as we like, everything built to quality and to a target market where the funds will definately be there is very costly.

I did a racking job today, HP kit. A rack mount conversion kit for a floorstanding ML370, which consists of a pair of bits of metal, a few bearings, and a couple of screws, is £180. A 17" TFT rackmount monitor which is just a normal crappy 17" tft with metal sliders is £950. Plus VAT.

If you know people will pay it, they will pay it!
 
I've just spent 4 hours programming a game of noughts and crosses, now imagine how long it takes them to program a plane!
 
Just to add to what has rightly been said about R & D costs-

"The original procurement of 135 aircraft was later reduced to 75 in the late 1980s. In his 1992 State of the Union Address, President George H.W. Bush announced total B-2 production would be limited to 20 aircraft (later increased to 21 by refurbishing a test aircraft). This reduction was largely a result of the disintegration of the Soviet Union, which effectively rendered void the Spirit's primary mission."

If 135 were produced, each unit would obviously cost a lot, lot less.

I also very much agree with sizeable chunks of the 'cost' going to black projects, which is of course how the B-2 itself started out.
 
I suppose if Aldi started beginning to sell Stealth bombers I'd suspect they'd drop in price pretty quickly and I'd pick two up with my bread and cheese.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom