These are the Air Force’s 10 most expensive planes to operate
SUMMARY
1. E-4 Nightwatch
Who knew the President's mobile command post was an E-4? With all the latest and greatest gear to keep flying in the midst of all-out nuclear war and all its top secret countermeasures, it should come as no surprise that each of the Air Force's four converted 747s cost $159,529 per hour to fly.
2. B-2 Spirit
The B-2 literally costs more than its weight in gold. The Air Force's 20 B-2 bombers run along a similar price tag: $130,159 per hour.
3. C-5 Galaxy
The largest of the USAF cargo haulers, the C-5 can carry two Abrams tanks, ten armored fighting vehicles, a chinook helicopter, an F-16, or an A-10 and only costs $100,941 an hour to get the stuff to the fight.
4. OC-135 Open Skies
This plane was designed to keep tabs on the armed forces belonging to the 2002 signatories of the Open Skies Treaty, which was is designed to enhance mutual understanding and confidence by giving all participants, regardless of size, a direct role in gathering information about military forces and activities of concern to them. At $99,722 an hour, it's one expensive overwatch.
5. E-8C Joint STARS
The airborne battle platform costs $70,780 to keep flying. The E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, or Joint STARS, is an airborne battle management, command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platform. Its primary mission is to provide theater ground and air commanders with ground surveillance to support attack operations and targeting that contributes to the delay, disruption and destruction of enemy forces.
6. B-52 Stratofortress
Squeaking in just under the JSTARS cost, The B-52 BUFF (look it up) runs $70,388 per flying hour.
7. F-35A Lightning II
A 33rd Fighter Wing F-35A Lightning II powers down on the Duke Field flightline for the first time. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Sam King)
Despite its ballooning development costs, the F-35 isn't as expensive to fly as one might think, at only $67,550 an hour. (And that fact is one of the airplane's selling points.)
8. CV-22 Osprey
The USAF's special operations tiltrotor will run you $63,792 per hour.
9. B-1B Lancer
The B-1 makes up sixty percent of the Air Force's bomber fleet and runs $61,027 per flying hour.
10. F-22 Raptor
The "best combat plane in the world" only cost $58,059 an hour to fly. Small price to pay for the best.
Honorable Mention: A-10 Thunderbolt II (aka "Warthog")
An A-10 Thunderbolt II, from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., approaches the boom of a KC-135 Stratotanker from McConnell Air Force Base. (U.S. Air Force photo byAirman 1st Class Colby L. Hardin)
The BRRRRRT costs a measly (by comparison, anyway) $19,051.
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