A good comment by Fred at Daimnation!: "over at Army.ca David said the $400m came from DND sources. Figuring cost of “ a C17” is complex because you can’t really just buy “a plane”, but if you could, the base price for a spanking new one is (was in July 2006) $US 195 million. Ref: July 31/06: Boeing subsidiary McDonnell Douglas Corp. in Long Beach, CA received a $780 million firm-fixed-price, undefinitized delivery order contract that will provide 4 C-17 aircraft to the Royal Australian Air Force ($195 million per plane). [External Link] Then there is the burdened price of a current model C17, which includes “Training and Initial Spares”. Having been a manager in an Integrated Logistics Support Department for a major Defence contractor, I can tell you that phrase covers a lot of possibilities and quantities. So that means it is a variable price, with different customers buying more or less training and initial spares. Depends on your Support model and a whole raft of variables that are assessed and quantified, often very subjectively. I have googled articles with prices ranging from $US 225m - $US 330m. One source, usually reliable has the Canadian burdened price per CC177 + Training and Initial Spares is $US 330.8million. Convert that over to Canuck_bucks and it might explain DND sources telling David about $Cdn 400 million per aircraft. Ref [External Link] “Current USAF C-17 unit cost is US$330.8M including training and spares.” The big bulk of the rest of published price is the 20 year maintenance deal, which really skews the aircraft price in the mind of John & Jane Q public. It would be like Honda saying the price of a new Accord is $155,000 dollars – the life cycle cost of 15 years gas, insurance, repairs etc. A complex area that neither DND or the MSM has explained in simple, easily understood language. I would have gone with the base price number, converted to $Cdn 210 million dollars." Mark Ottawa