basically military budget will always eat 1/4 to 1/3 of the US budget no matter the output, so if it produces few dozen F35 then yes - it will look like costs p

basically military budget will always eat 1/4 to 1/3 of the US budget no matter the output, so if it produces few dozen F35 then yes - it will look like costs per unit are outrageous. a lot of military spending is fixed costs that pentagon is unable to dial down, has to spend due to contracts and maintenance, and basically jobs + pork barrel program. so they just play "hollywood accounting" tricks by allocating their spend from line item A to line item B, depending on what voters will bear. one decade it will be Afghanistan war, another decade it will be airforce development, this upcoming decade it will be Navy spending on new boats etc.