BOEING SAYS IT CAN MAINTAIN $80M PER UNIT COST FOR THE F-15EX

Boeing's Steve Parker said he expects a contract for F-15EX lot 2 and 3 'will be at the advertised price' when it is finalised in a couple months. The price claim comes after lawmakers bemoaned lack of oversight on unit costs for the fighter.

Boeing intends to keep its next two lots of F-15EXs at or below the company’s original $80 million per unit price point despite inflationary pressures that are raising supply costs, the company’s vice president for fighters and bombers said. The declaration, made by Boeing’s Steve Parker in a roundtable with reporters at the Royal International Air Tattoo, stands in sharp contrast to repeated warnings about expected price jumps for another high-profile fighter programme, the F-35.

In that case both Defence Department and Lockheed Martin officials have telegraphed for months that Lockheed will be unable to maintain the $78 million cost per plane for an F-35A conventional take-off-and landing variant. Parker acknowledged Boeing would ‘see some pressure from inflation’ and has already seen turbulence within the supply chain. However, he said, “I expect that so we will be on the next contract within the next couple of months for the next two lots of EXs, and it will be at the advertised price.”