So, are they great yet?
this post was submitted on 04 Jun 2025
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I'm sure it's great for some.
So they'll make less war machines, right?
Good news for Eurofighter, Saab, Rheinmetall and so on.
America, the land of Fools.
I can’t stand all this greatness it’s driving me crazy.
We should pass that cost on to Israel
If the F-35 was made solely out of aluminium, like an equal-mass paperweight, the price of the raw material would be about 0.013 million USD per aircraft. In reality it sells for about 80 million. I doubt it's price will soar because of the cost of aluminum.
The super advanced electronics and engines are negligible, and so is the high level machining.
No what REALLY matters is that the cheapest part which is the raw materials, is increasing in price.
/s
I suppose this must be the thought process for the majority that downvote your obviously true comment.
PS:
IDK if the numbers are accurate, but the image they paint is.
People don't want to admit it judging by the downvotes, but there is nothing in the article that justifies the headline, and your point seems correct. If they were to pass the increased costs of importing steel and aluminum to the buyers of these military vehicles, the increase in price would hardly be noticeable. You can admit this without it meaning "I like Donald Trump."
The main buyer for these are the US government. There is no passing off the cost, there's just paying more for the same thing. The increase to material import costs is significant to the manufacturers of parts and assemblies.
I worked in aerospace manufacturing for about a decade. When aluminum prices went up during COVID due to supply chain issues, it in most cases, more than doubled the price of components we were making.
Often, a company will order say, 3 radio boxes. That could require 3 aluminum blanks to produce. Unfortunately, at small quantities, there's no price break on materials, and often if you only need 3 blanks, you still have to purchase 10 blanks of material as a minimum lot charge. That cost does go to the buyer. If they order 10 radios, there would be no change price, because of the minimum lot. If the cost aluminum of blanks jumps from $200 to $300 each just because of tariffs, then the total cost on one that 3 radio order jumps $700 extra on extra material.
It's a messy example, but when the prices change on the core items, everyone up the supply chain takes a chunk of that pie. If you're shooting for 12% profit, that 12% on the new tariff price for material from distributors, manufacturers, and any number of assembly processes up the supply chain. It all cascades.
But the big thing is that these aren't get sold to other countries en masse, so there is no passing it on
Exactly the raw material cost is insignificant, what costs is the machining, assembly and quality control.
On large batches like washers and screws, that's correct. A good chunk of these contracts are smaller orders where the BOM accounts for the bulk of the machining process. Anecdotally, when prices went up during the pandemic due to supply chain, our manufacturing costs for most of our aluminum orders doubled. You want a dozen radio control knobs? Sorry, machining only takes an hour, but material just tripled in cost, and you have to buy 120' minimum.
I don't think dump trucks filled with raw ore dump out materials into Lockeed Martin's parking lot and then they have some magical device that converts it into an F-35. I think it's more likely they purchase very specialized bits of metal that is produced at or above a specific grade. Producing materials to very specific requirements isn't cheap, and requires specialized tooling and training to do.
Yes you can refit mills and train people in the US to produce those bits of metal but that takes time and money to do. There's likely even security clearances people have to complete to see the specs on some of the materials.
And the significant investment needed to retool and retrain isn't happening because the investment crowd is in the TACO mindset.
Preparing for war by shooting yourself in the foot first. I can't keep up with all these 5D chess moves!
The steel/aluminum material cost of each cannot be very high relative to the overall price.
If we're talking about a steel-framed building or something, sure, I get it. But a warplane?