January 9, 2026: Since World War II, missiles have become increasingly prevalent in war, especially for air-to-air combat, ground attack and anti-aircraft systems. The per unit prices are not impressive. The US Sidewinder heat seeking air-to-air missiles goes for over $400,000 each. The more complex and effective AMRAAM costs about three times as much as a Sidewinder. The Patriot Air Defense system uses two different missiles, the $4 million PAC-2 GEM-T/Guidance Enhanced Missile and PAC-3 MSE/Missile Segment Enhancement for intercepting missiles. It costs twice as much as anti-aircraft PAC-3. U.S. Navy ships use the $2.5 million SM-2/Standard Missile 2 for aircraft while the $4.5 million SM-6/Standard Missile 6 can take down high speed missiles and low orbit satellites. For ground attack there is the lightweight 50 kg Hellfire missile. About 200,000 of these have been built so far, at an average cost of $140,000.

While those prices seem reasonable for what you get, the true price is a lot higher when you include the costs for a launcher. These additional launcher costs include what it takes to operate the aircraft or ship carrying the missile. Not so much the cost of the aircraft or ship, but the sorties cost for aircraft and the warships. A sortie can cost up to $300,000 for most current fighters and fighter bombers. The cost per flight hour may be $40-60,000 an hour, but modern aircraft can fly longer and often do that due to aerial refueling. Now you have to have the cost of each multi-engine and larger crew cost for aerial refueling aircraft. And then there is the cost of half a dozen or so maintainers who prepare a warplane for a sortie/mission and check out the aircraft when it returns and make quick fixes and refuel and rearm the aircraft.

You can see how all these cascading costs mean each warplane costs several, often more than five million dollars to operate. These aircraft remain in service for 20 years or more. During that time aircraft can undergo one or two refurbishments. These can cost a third or more of what the aircraft cost brand new. These costs don’t include the millions spent on maintenance of airbases and aircraft carriers, which also have large operating costs.

Individual missiles have similar costs. There are also the periodic costs for each missile as it accounts for some of the per-sortie aircraft costs. Most missiles are never used and are eventually scrapped via dismantling and safely disposing of solid fuel rocket motors, batteries, electronic components and explosives. A missile may remain available for use over a 20-30 year period. That means two or three refurbishments/upgrades plus retirement costs which triple, quadruple or quintuple the original purchase cost. There are also the periodic costs for each missile as it accounts for some of the per-sortie aircraft costs.

This is not just an American problem. Fifteen years ago, the Russian Air Force realized that all but a few dozen of their 300 military air transports would have to be retired over the next seven years. These An-12, An-72, An-124 and Il-76 aircraft entered service in the 1960s and 70s. The Russian government had to decide to either put these aircraft through expensive refurbishment or buy new aircraft. The An-124s and Il-76s were the most likely to get rebuilt, and the revival of the An-70 project would provide new aircraft to replace elderly An-12s, and expensive-to-operate An-72s. But refurbishment would only extend the life of elderly aircraft by about ten years. New ones are good for up to 30 years. The Russian transport fleet was getting old even when the Cold War ended. Lack of use during the 1990s helped some of those old birds survive a little longer. But now, with rebuilding the military a top priority, the transports will have more to do.