Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!att!cbnews!military
From: jons@oscsunb.osc.edu (Jon Steinbach (ST))
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Bat Plane Bux
Message-ID: <12934@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 9 Jan 90 02:20:29 GMT
References: <12850@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Sender: military@cbnews.ATT.COM
Organization: Ohio Supercomputer Center
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Approved: military@att.att.com



From: jons@oscsunb.osc.edu (Jon Steinbach (ST))

In article <12850@cbnews.ATT.COM> cmr@cvedc.Prime.Com (Chesley Reyburn) writes:
>
>
>From: cmr@cvedc.Prime.Com (Chesley Reyburn)
>I swore that I was gonna stop posting to this group but this
>is too good to keep to myself:
>
>I love the B-2. It looks so... well, deadly. I am, however, quite
>amazed at the price of the thing. I have been thinking about just
>how in the heck $532 million is getting used. Herewith I submit my
>first approximation:
>
>NUMBERS:

>    Airframe
>	I figured that the B-2 is about as big as a 737 airliner.
>	I also figured that choosing the largest airliner that I
>	know of would give some decent fudging. So I called Boeing
>	and asked what the ball-park price for a generic 747-400
>	just off of the line was. The guy said $116 to $132
>	million a pop. I used the average of the two prices.

    Comparing the airframe of a 747 with that of a stealth bomber is
like comparing the 747 with a kite.  The skin itself is at least
3 times as complex.  Stealth technology incorporates a hexagonal
surface which by bouncing radar waves internally disipates the 
signal returned, at the same time it must be much lighter than the
747 skin but stronger considering it's unique shape.  It also uses 
special radar absorbent paint. This could at least double your
airframe price.

>    Computers
>	What could be more powerfull than a Cray X-MP? I heard
    A Cray Y-MP.  We just had one installed here last summer and it cost
over $20 million.  It weighs about 9 tons, most of it involved
in cooling the unit.  Now imagine making one which is powerful
enough to do stealth bomber problems like stable flight, probably
approaches Y-MP (note weight), but which is light enought to fit
in a small area in B-2.  Multiply 10 by some coefficient.
  
>    Communications gear
>	I looked in the latest DAC catalog and found the Uniden
>	Bearcat 200-Channel Programmable 800 Mhz Rechargable
>	Scanner at $249.00 per. I rounded to $250 and applied
>	a multiplier of 1000.

     Don't forget about complex NSA type scrambler, this is supposed
to be Stealth, not Voice of America.
 
>CONCLUSION:
>    I take the remainder to be actual development costs. This means
>    that only about 25% of the price for each production unit is
>    going for actual iron with the rest going for incentive (profit)
>    and development costs. This seems about right dosen't it?

    I agree that it's price is greatly inflated, but not by a factor
of two.  Also include all the high salaries of workers.  Technological
items in the military do not rely on cheap labor, you have to pay 
enough to keep them from spilling their guts to the Russians.  Also
for companies like this, it may be their only source of income other
than maintenance of old equipment.  Boeing also has alot of competitors
trying to sell planes too, while there will only be one company
building the B-2.  Everything we buy has an inflated price, not just
military planes.  I wonder how much it costs to build a tv or vcr and
look at how much they charge.

Jon Steinbach
Ohio State Computer Science
steinbac@cis.ohio-state.edu
Ohio Supercomputer Center
jons@oscsunb.osc.edu