5 of the Most Expensive Military Craft Ever Made

hello everybody welcome back to another episode of side projects expensive military crafts today so let's get into it [Music] from total program and per unit costs to research and development and overall lifetime expenditures determining the true price tag of military craft can be a bit tricky often when everything's included the true cost of designing acquiring and maintaining military machines is many times higher than the unwitting public is led to believe these days major programs budgets are often measured in the hundreds of millions or even the billions of dollars the f-35 lightning for example has been dragged through the proverbial mud in recent years because it cost more than wait for it 300 billion dollars to develop though its overall development cost was less than the lightnings with a whopping price tag of nearly 14 billion dollars the u.s navy's new aircraft carrier gerald r ford takes the top spot as the world's most expensive individual military craft but since we've already covered the ford extensively in the video world's most powerful engines also on this channel we'll skip over it here and proceed with a few other monumentally expensive military craft of note [Music] designed and built by general dynamics and huntington ingalls industries in newport news virginia the nuclear-powered virginia-class submarines are the u.s navy's newest and most advanced undersea warfare platforms and with a price approaching nearly 3 billion per unit the most expensive as well by some estimates more than 30 million man hours went into designing these subs construction takes another 10 million with parts and systems coming from approximately 4 000 suppliers each virginia-class boat features the latest in advanced weaponry stealth and intelligence gathering technology and is capable of operating in both open ocean and relatively shallow coastal environments the 377-foot subs displaced nearly 9 000 tons fully submerged and demanded by a crew of 120 sailors and 15 officers though each hull's integrity is tested to at least 800 feet that's 240 meters unconfirmed rumors suggest that their true crush depth that's when the hull implodes by the way maybe twice as deep probably don't want to test that one main proof 10 million main propulsion comes from a single general electric s9g pressure water reactor capable of generating more than 40 000 shaft horsepower enough to propel the craft to nearly 30 miles per hour when submerged and like other nuclear powered vessels with nearly unlimited range their mission time is only restricted by restocking and maintenance issues that can't be attended to at sea though the original virginia-class subs are true heavyweights in their own right even bigger and more lethal variants will also be produced the largest of which is the block 5. block 5 subs will be fitted with additional 84-foot hull sections housing four large diameter launch tubes each capable of holding seven tomahawk cruise missiles which in conjunction with the 12 in the bow bring the total payload to 40. though primarily used for weapons delivery the block 5's versatile tubes can also deploy seal teams and launch manned undersea vehicles for reconnaissance and intelligence gathering purposes boats also carry an impressive array of mark 48 torpedoes harpoon anti-ship missiles and even nuclear weapons which is a relatively new development whereas previous subs were designed for specific roles like fast attack precision strike and fleet protection the virginia class boats are much more versatile in other words they're true multi-mission machines designed to do many different jobs but according to some industry insiders for the one-size-fits-all approach to work traditional naval doctrine will have to be turned upside down and that won't happen overnight it won't be cheap either because training costs and ship complexity have increased at an alarming pace like it is with fifth generation military aircraft stealth is a big issue with submarines their very survival depends largely on evading detection and to that end the virginia class's designers incorporated what the acronym happy navy refers to as acoustic superiority program or asp in short the subs are supposed to hear better and operate more silently than their adversaries but cost-conscious detractors claim that the navy's costs are increasing too rapidly and that the number of vessels deployed will invariably dwindle also multi-role craft had not to do one thing particularly very well like the case of the bradley infantry fighting vehicle and the general dynamics f-111 nonetheless at the original 66 orders placed more than a decade ago 19 of the virginia-class boats have been completed and nearly a dozen more are under construction they'll continue to be built and delivered until the early 2040s at which time they'll take the place of the los angeles-class subs that preceded them nearly three dozen of which are still in use [Music] when it made its debut in 1989 the u.s air force's northrop grumman b2 spirit heavy penetration stealth bomber made serious waves but development began years earlier during the carter administration under the air force's advanced technology bomber project initial performance projections were so impressive that the president canceled the development of the supersonic b1 bomber though unforeseen b2 delays led to its reinstatement later on though capable of infiltrating state-of-the-art air defense systems and carrying out precision bombing missions at various altitudes up to 50 000 ft each b2 came with a whopping price tag of just north of two billion dollars original cost was projected at just 730 million dollars but like many massive military programs delays cost overruns last minute design changes and runaway inflation more than doubled the price with a length of 69 feet 21 meters and a wingspan of 170 feet 50 meters fully laden b2s tip the scales at 388 thousand pounds about 176 000 kilograms and they're capable of attaining speeds of 600 miles per hour it's a thousand kilometers an hour thanks to their four general electric turbofan engines which produce more than 17 000 pounds of thrust each b2s are able to carry up to 40 000 pounds 18 000 kilograms of conventional or nuclear weapons but it's their stealth that truly sets them apart from other heavy bombers sporting one of the most advanced designs in aviation hefty b2s are essentially tailless flying wedges and they're particularly adept at flying undetected through enemy radar due to their abundant curves and radar absorbent skin they're also able to fly more than 6 000 nautical miles without refueling or more than 10 000 after rendezvousing with an aerial tanker making them surprisingly efficient for such large aircraft with a total program bill of nearly 50 billion dollars in an operating cost of 135 000 per hour the 21 b2s built are among the air force's most costly acquisitions over the years they have flown sorties in kosovo libya iraq and afghanistan but their use has been quite limited [Music] though it's widely regarded as one of the most capable air superiority fighters in service today temeni nay says the f-22 raptor symbolizes everything wrong with military procurement with a per unit cost approaching 200 million dollars each is actually well over 300 million dollars when research and development and lifetime maintenance costs are factored in and total program cost exceeded 70 billion dollars the raptors development got underway in the early 1980s when forward-looking air force brass envisioned a time when legacy fighters like the f-16 and f-15 would be obsolete what they needed was an advanced tactical fighter to counter emerging threats primarily from fast maneuverable and relatively inexpensive soviet su-27 flankers and mig-29 fulcrums to our class's adversaries the f-22 would utilize a variety of groundbreaking advancements including lightweight alloys and composite materials cutting-edge avionics more powerful and efficient engines and stealth technology each rapture is 62 feet long has a wingspan of almost 45 feet and is capable of taking to the skies with a maximum takeoff weight of more than 80 000 pounds when fully loaded with ordnance and fuel outfitted with two pratt and whitney f-119 100 turbofan engines producing nearly 35 000 pounds of thrust each raptors are capable of achieving supercruise speeds of mach 1.8 about 1 400 miles per hour without using fuel guzzling afterburners with a meteoric service ceiling of nearly 65 000 feet and a climb rate of more than 1 100 feet per second and a range of nearly 2000 miles raptors are world class performers in a number of ways and they're agile too largely due to thrust vectoring nozzles fitted to each engine though the last f-22 was delivered in mid-2012 the usaf has said they might be operational until as late as 2060. although it tends to get lost in the shadow of its slightly larger and much older cousin the c5 galaxy the air force's c-17 globemaster iii definitely takes the cake when it comes to cost they're the newest components of the air force's heavy airlift inventory and at nearly 220 million dollars of pop while the most expensive too in the aforementioned aircraft names the c stands for cargo and the c-17 is among the largest transporters of military personnel machines and supplies in the world globemaster 3s were manufactured jointly between mcdonnell douglas and boeing defense and made their maiden test flight in september of 1991 but didn't officially enter service until a few years later the c-17 was designed to meet a number of rigorous requirements that c5s just can't match namely that it must have a mission completion probability of at least 93 and require less than 20 maintenance hours for every hour of flight time the latter of which was made possible by using readily available commercial components and avionics c-17s are also capable of taking off and landing on austere runways as short as three thousand feet despite having a maximum takeoff weight of almost six hundred thousand pounds about 265 000 kilos each aircraft has a length and wingspan of nearly 175 feet and stands 55 feet tall at the tail the cargo compartment alone measures 85 feet long 18 feet wide and up to 13 feet high in some areas cargo capacity is nearly 171 000 pounds 76 000 kilograms which makes it one of the few airplanes in the world that can carry a main battle tank like the m1 abrams which are loaded by a large ram on the back of the airplane below the tail when not hauling armor each c-17 can carry more than 100 soldiers or paratroopers up to 54 wounded soldiers and medical personnel or palletized freight in 18 different positions to get all of that weight moving from a dead stop takes tons of power which is produced by four pratt whitney f-117 pw100 turbofan engines with more than 40 000 pounds of thrust each top speed about 500 miles per hour ranges up to 6200 miles depending on gross weight and headwind and nearly unlimited with in-flight refueling for normal operations each c-17 has a crew of three consisting of a pilot co-pilot and load master responsible for ensuring the cargo is evenly distributed and properly secured the c-17 fleet's planned service life will extend into the 2030s although it'll probably remain in service for decades longer than that however after nearly 25 years production finally ceased in february 2015. all told c-17s went to air forces all over the world including qatar canada kuwait india and the uae unlike the other capable and pricey machines in this video the boeing p8a poseidon can't fly 70 ton m1 abrams main battle tanks halfway around the world break the sound barrier or even launch nuclear missiles from deep inside the ocean but at nearly 300 million dollars it's still one of the u.s navy's most expensive craft when it was officially rolled out in 2013 the poseidon took the place of lockheed's p3 orion a turbo prop-powered anti-submarine aircraft that served in a variety of roles for more than half a century but underpowered engines aging airframes and limited endurance worsened by the near-constant addition of new equipment that made the plane heavier than it was ever meant to be prompted the u.s navy to start looking for a replacement in the early 1980s competing designs were submitted by lockheed and british defense and aerospace consortium bae systems who offered to build a modified version of the 60's era hawker siddeley nimrod maritime patrol and anti-sub platform that had served the raf for decades thankfully for boeing however bae lacked a us-based manufacturing partner and eventually withdrew their bid one might suspect with a price tag of nearly 300 million dollars that the new aircraft were designed from the ground up but that wasn't the case because the poseidon was largely based on one of the company's commercial airliners the twin engine 737-800 however despite huge cost savings that resulted from the use of common components like engines and airframes a significant portion of the plane's exorbitant cost came from the cutting-edge equipment necessary to perform its many roles including detecting stealthy subs lingering hundreds of feet below the surface of the sea like its predecessor the p-8 is primarily a sub-hunter but it's a true multi-mission maritime aircraft that also acts in ship interdiction anti-surface warfare surveillance reconnaissance and search and rescue capabilities as well each is nearly 130 feet long 42 feet tall and has a wingspan of nearly 125 feet and is powered by two cfm international high bypass turbo fans each of which produces about 27 000 pounds of thrust with a maximum takeoff weight of 190 000 pounds that's enough power to propel the aircraft to a height of nearly 40 000 feet where it's capable of reaching speeds in excess of 500 miles per hour but although it's capable of high speeds and altitudes on some top detection and intelligence missions it's necessary for the aircraft to fly low and slow skimming just a few hundred feet over the surface at less than 200 miles per hour with a full fuel load poseidons have a ferry range of about 4 300 miles and are capable of aerial refuelling extending their range indefinitely in addition to their abundance of high-tech gear like air-launched sono boys and radar poseidons are armed with torpedoes harpoon anti-ship missiles bombs depth charges mines and both air-to-air and air-to-land missiles they can also work in conjunction with other aircraft naval vessels and drones for specific roles and targets that they can't handle themselves as of may 2020 122 units have been built and though most have gone to the u.s navy others have been exported to india england australia norway new zealand and north korea so i really hope you found that video interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below if there's one we missed let us know in the comments below this is definitely something we could do a follow-up video on so please use those comments below let me know what you think and thank you for [Music] watching [Music] you

Channel: Sideprojects

Views: 222,864

Keywords: megaprojects, construction, engineering, projects

Id: RGMDanECr_c

Length: 14min 36sec (876 seconds)

Published: Sat Jan 30 2021