So when you don't even know for which carriers these fighters are meant for, it's not surprising that you make false conclusions.
On the contrary, I perfectly aware of the shenanigans of the armed forces. LCA Navy MK2, a programme initiated by the Navy itself is yet to take flight but navy is writing it's obituary in the media. These 57 MRCBF is Navy's way to get INS Vishal sanctioned as per their "requirements".
Now let's address the deadline. No disrespect to Admiral Lanba but his deadline of 2020 is wishful thinking on his part.
The F18SH has folding wings and therfore can reduce it's wingspan slightly below 10m and Boeing reportedly aims on fitting the fighter in an angled way to fit on the lifts.
Dassaults only option is to remove the missiles and the wing tips, every time the fighter has to be parked, or placed on the lift and fit it back again, every time if it needs to take off. All that, to get the wingspan down to a similar level that the folded F18SH will have. So at max, they can offer similar wingspan, with an unpractical procedure for proper carrier operations, which means that the F18 is more suitable by size for our carriers.
Not only that Boeing and Dassault are clueless about the dimensions of the lifts, neither of them have actually flew from a STOBAR carrier or a land based test facility. Boeing did attempt that with a F-18 C/D in the 80s and Dassault hasn't even done that.
In the world filled with false claims by defence industry, this is just another attempt to sell snake oil. Essentially getting their foot on the door for "pesky details" to be negotiated at a later stage.
Anybody that wants official figures without making false calculations, but you don't listen and prefer to make conclusions instead. As I already explained, your "calculation" includes 2 types of costs and that's why you get to a higher price. If you want US government confirmation, you can also Google for MoD budgets, that shows the flyaway costs for standard F18s and Growlers too, but you will see the same result.
But at the end of the day it doesn't matter, because even your false calulations showed that the F18SH is cheaper and that's significant in a tender, that should select shortlisted fighters in L1 and L2.
Jesus man, why are you hell bent on listening to the marketing departments of corporations instead of the actual users. There are only two users of SH, both of them operate Growlers so unless IN thinks (and you are certain about it) that SH is great platform but Growlers sucks I don't get your rationale kicking out Growlers from the equation. Same goes for costs, why should I listen to Boeing? Buying costs of both USN & RAN are available. Do me a favour, read them and then feel free to gush over the brochure specifications and costs. Till then adios.
