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A low price means a high volume of sales means a high profit. So what does this tell us about too many fighter jets?
Best Jet Fighter
In the 21st century, there are fighter jets and then there are fighter jets. Which type you get depends on how much you want to pay.
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Got hundreds of millions of dollars to throw away? So, like the U.S. government, you can hire Lockheed Martin (LMT 0.90%) to design and build the F-22 Raptor stealth fighter, widely regarded as the world's most capable air superiority fighter. (Of course, if you cut production short before economies of scale kick in, the cost per plane is $412 million.)
Alternatively, for the same money, you could buy a bunch of Boeing (BA -0.16%) fourth-generation fighter jets, the completely useless F/A-18s or F-15s, which sell for around $100 million.
Are you shopping on a budget? Maybe you like a nice Soviet-era Sukhoi Su-34 Fullback. (List price: US$18 million). Or if you want to buy domestically, Textron's (TXT 2.15%) new Scorpion is a steal at $17 million per plane.
Depending on what the nation needs, different buyers will choose different fighter jets and different price points. But what are the most common combinations?
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10. Chengdu J-7 Fishbed (no longer in production) Number 10 in this year's Flightglobal Insight World Forces 2015 report is China's first fighter jet, the J-7. It is actually a Chinese version of the old Soviet MiG-21 and is no longer in production. However, 418 remain in service, giving the fighter a 3% global market share.
China's export version of the J-7 is called the F-7 and is also the twin of the Russian MiG-21. The F-7 numbers have not seen any wear in the last 12 months. A year ago, 460 were used worldwide. Each is still flying, giving the F-7 a 3% market share.
8. List price of Northrop Grumman F-5 Tigers: $20-25 million (est.) After two dozen retirements last year, only 468 Northrop F-5 Tigers remain in the air. The aircraft is no longer in production, but retains a 3% market share. The website AircraftCompare.com estimates that if the Tiger were produced today, it would likely cost in the $20 million range.
Russia's answer to the American A-10 Thunderbolt II "Warthog", the Su-25 is a dedicated "tank destroyer". It is also apparently almost as common as the warthog. Last year, only one Su-25 aircraft was retired.
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It also has a 3% market share and 506 aircraft are still in service. With a new variant now in production – the Su-39 – the Frogfoot could move up the ranks in the future.
Although once one of the most popular fighter jets in the world, it is no longer in active production and the number of MiG-21s in service is declining. Their number has decreased from 793 in 2013 to 698 in 2014 to today only 668 people. Since it's no longer in production, it's hard to say how much a new one would cost...but apparently you can buy a used MiG-21 on eBay for around 25 grand.
The MiG-21 still has a 5% market share. And adding up all the "twins" of the Chinese J-7 and F-7 that are still flying around, there will be 1,546 MiG-21 variants in service and the market share will double.
5. Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-29 Fulcrum - list price: $40 million Moscow's most advanced MiG has reduced market share by 5% (793 aircraft). This is enough for MiGs to go to the fifth place in the rating. However, a new variant (the MiG-35D) is due to enter service in 2016 and could improve the MiG's prospects - so stay tuned.
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4. Boeing F-15 Eagle List Price: 100 million dollars. Boeing's F-15 lost the international fighter jet competition again this year due to a combination of high cost and poor camouflage, and is currently ranked fourth on Flightglobal's list. With 11 fewer aircraft in service (now 854), the F-15 has a 6% share of the global market with...
3. Sukhoi Su-27 Flanker - list price: $22 million Russia's most popular fighter jet, the Su-27 Flanker, has continued to climb the rankings this year, and one reason for that could be its low cost. According to military aircraft experts deagel.com, with the depreciation of the ruble, the most advanced model of the Su-27, called the Su-35 Flanker-E, costs only 22 million dollars per copy.
The base flanker and its cousins the Su-30, -33 and -35 moved up two places to fifth place last year and now have a 6% share of the global market with a total of 874 aircraft.
Boeing's F-18 fighter jet, which maintains its position as number 2 in the market through its many iterations, maintains a 7% market share worldwide. In 2015, the number of F-18 combat aircraft in the world's air forces reached 1046 operational aircraft.
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And last (first?) but not least, Lockheed Martin's affordable F-16 Falcon is the top-ranked aircraft in this year's Flightglobal report for the second year in a row. With 2,242 aircraft in active service, the F-16 is still the world's most popular fighter jet, accounting for 15% of the world's air force.
Why Fighter Jets Matter to Investors So why is it important to investors in the defense industry? It works like this: the more planes a company builds and sells, the more research and development costs it can spread and the less it can pay per plane.
You're so far away from me Lockheed Martin has now sold more than 4,500 F-16s worldwide. This is not surprising. After all, it is one of the cheapest aircraft in our inventory. (Also note that Russia sold even more of its cheaper MiG-21s.)
Half of Lockheed's F-16s are still flying, generating maintenance, maintenance and upgrade revenue for Lockheed, and its shareholders earn an 11% margin on that revenue.
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But the aircraft that Lockheed hopes will succeed the F-16, the F-35 stealth fighter, costs more than three times the price of the F-16. In fact, certain versions of the F-35 can cost nearly five times as much as the F-16. With prices as high as $150 million per example, can Lockheed Martin maintain its global market share advantage in the face of very low-cost fighter jet offerings from Russia and China?
I personally doubt it. Of course, if all goes according to plan and Lockheed Martin manages to sell more than 3,000 of its F-35s over the next 60 years, the plane's current high price could bring a lot of profit to Lockheed. But if Lockheed doesn't sell them soon enough and lower the price enough to attract buyers, then this list of the world's 10 most popular fighter jets will one day look very different.
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Better invest with The Motley Fool. Get stock recommendations, portfolio advice, and more from the excellent services of The Motley Fool.. Fighter jets are arguably the most important aircraft in any Air Force. Your mission is to protect the airspace and attack the enemy. They should be fast, reliable, able to carry heavy loads and deliver on time. So a fighter must be extremely advanced to perform well on the modern battlefield.
Most of the fighter jets in the modern military belong to the 4th generation. They are agile, have advanced radar equipment and are highly adaptable.
Fifth generation aircraft are the newest and most advanced aircraft. Not only do they have stealth features, but they are also equipped with modern avionics, data links and sensors.
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But the latest gear comes at a price to match. So many nations will upgrade their 4th generation as well
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