Why when Canada couldn't afford more than 88 F-35s would they go out and order 150 Gripen/Rafale, both of which were found to be more expensive in multiple competitions held by multiple countries...?
Because while the price of the F-35 appears to be similar to that of the Gripen E, the cost of maintaining the F-35 is so steep that you can have 3 Gripen for the same price.
The first tender lost was Norway. According to the Norwegian calculations, the Gripen E would have been more expensive even if SAAB had given away the Gripens free of charge. the maintenance cost of Gripen was considered much much higher than the cost Sweden experience for running the Gripen.
Guess what? Now with the real cost known, the Norwegians believe that their 56 F-35As will cost them a lot more. A LOT MORE. NOK326B ($31,24B) during the next 30 years. That is $558M per aircraft or $18,6M per year.
If it flies 200 hours per year, that is $95k per flight hour.
They do include the cost of running the base in that number.
The Gripen is believed to cost $85M on the open market, but Sweden is paying a fixed price of around $3,5B for the development of Gripen E and 60 aircrafts. This is a little low for two reasons. It is not inflation adjusted and there are likely clauses that compensate for currency fluctuations.
The development cost is estimated to be $2B. My best guess is the real cost to Sweden is around $65M per aircraft with $20M as payment for the development. Buying 150 aircraft gives room for a discount on the development part of the price. SAAB of course sells at market value and the cost of production matters less. It is likely that Canada would produce a large part in Canada but would have to pay for Transfer of Technology.
The major item is of course the maintenance cost. In the Danish tender, IIRC the Danes calculated the CPFH by assuming a large part of the ”flights” for the F-35 would be in simulators. The others would mostly be flying IRL. Boeing was so pissed that they considered suing.
The F-35 was seen as the next NATO fighter so there were lots of pressure, internal and external to select it.
Special things blocking a Gripen sale.
* Norway: Wants to sell the Joint Strike Missile to the US. That would not happen without F-35 buy.
* Denmark: ?
* Canada: Required NORAD support without providing documentation on protocol.
* Swiss: Did not allow Gripen to participate in the second tender after it won the first tender.
* Belgium: Required support by Air tankers from the country selling the fighter. No non-US fighter needs to apply.
* Netherlands: ?
* UK, Italy: Need V/STOL
* Finland: ?
* Poland: ?
* Germany: Only aircraft that is capable of dropping US nuclear bombs.
When fair calculations are applied, then the F-35 is 3 x expensive than Gripen and therefore you can replace 52 F-35 with 150 Gripen. I think that if they want to go with Rafale, the number will be smaller,
