Cost of individual military items is often clouded by the need to amortize devel... | Hacker News

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		dboreham on May 24, 2023 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: Hypersonic missiles are misunderstood Cost of individual military items is often clouded by the need to amortize development cost over a relatively small production run. Making an additional missile beyond the contracted quantity does not cost $5m.

WalterBright on May 24, 2023 [–]

> a relatively small production run

Over 10,000 have been built. The R&D cost should have been amortized away by now.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MIM-104_Patriot

nradov on May 25, 2023 | | [–]

R&D has never stopped. Raytheon has a large team of engineers working on enhancements even today.

greedo on May 25, 2023 | | [–]

The difference between an original Patriot MIM-104 and today's PAC-3 MSE is huge.

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