The More Things Change, the More They Change
By This week’s column at the Diplomat takes at how the relative expense of different weapon systems has changed over time, and tries to draw out some operational and strategic implications of those changes.
In 1944, the relative costs of fighters, bombers, and aircraft carriers ran very roughly as follows:
F6F Hellcat: $35,000
B-29 Superfortress: $700,000
Essex-class aircraft carrier $70,000,000
An aircraft carrier was worth 100 heavy bombers, each of which cost roughly as much as 20 carrier-borne fighters. These are (roughly) the expected cost numbers for the next generation of fighter, bomber, and aircraft carrier for the United States
F-35: $150 million
LRS-B: $810 million
CVN-78: $12.8 billion
The ordinal relationship remains the same, but the ratios have changed; an aircraft carrier costs 15.8 bombers, while a bomber cost 5.4 fighters.