Why X-wings Are SOO CHEAP Compared to REAL JET FIGHTERS

[@GenerationTech]

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[@Kurama420]

3rd world countries labor force: You see what they have to do to gain a fraction of our power! Think, Mark, Think!

[@Tidoof]

Do you have a current giveaway event via Telegram?

[@bkmars2832]

I was told about a telegram give away of a PC from this channel. Is this a real thing or is someone scamming your viewers?

[@Tidoof]

@@bkmars2832 most likely a scam

[@christopherfleetwood5252]

Given how superior the Clone Wars military tech were to empire tech, but how old they are compared to X-Wings; how much of a discount do you think the rebels could have gotten from buying them in bulk? 😂

[@wwobbles]

Not surprised that they’re so cheap. With how long they’ve had space travel it’s probably equivalent to building a complicated cart here on earth

[@Illjwamh]

Strictly speaking, they've had space travel longer than we've had wheels.

[@Veldtian1]

@@Illjwamh we only know what 'we' had since the abrupt/cataclysmic end of the last Ice Age 9.600K years ago during the Younger Dryas Event, prior to that the technological status of humanity is up for very very interesting conjecture indeed.🤔

[@Tunda2]

Yeah, like your average kit car

[@michaeltuite5510]

I was thinking the same thing - small star ships are the more like cars and trucks are to us, with something like the Falcon being like a tractor trailer expense wise, and a sleek x-wing like a corvette.

[@skyw8248]

@@Veldtian1 🤓

[@LAV-III]

The X-wing may be way cheaper but at least the F-35 doesn’t need to move into visual range to dogfight

[@frogsaup]

Star wars fighters probably have way too good long range missile countermeasures, basically long range anti air missiles are likely obsolete in the star wars universe

[@Skyman58]

💀

[@GenerationTech]

@@frogsaup that's actually a good point, but if you play squadrons you definitely see more concussion missile usage. Line of sight battles definitely look cooler at the end of the day so that's probably why its kept in

[@omegon2540]

Ha ha Range advantage

[@myriri3687]

To be fair the USA has repeatedly attempted to bring Beyond Visual Range Airwar to fruition. Each time it has failed. Missile technology not living up to marketing, problems with target identification, countermeasures being too effective, stealth being obsolete, etc. It's gotten to a point where it can't even be made to work in strictly defined wargames.

[@sterasigma8734]

By the point where X-Wings were built, spacecrafts, laser cannons and hyperdrives are fairly mature technologies. One might as well compare its price to that of an armoured car. Hell, by the time of the Galactic Civil War, might as well compare the price of an X-Wing to a used vehicle.

[@robertagu5533]

From what heard "used vehicle" sounds like less "X" Wing and more the considerably older "Y" Wing

[@johnpatz8395]

But the X-Wing has a special issues within this topic, and that is that it wasn’t built in massive numbers, plus it’s construction, from gathering raw materials and various parts, to their final construction, had to be done completely covertly, such that the most power authoritarian government ever didn’t catch wind of where they were being built and stop it’s production. Both those issues would significantly increase the cost, and time needed to build them. I mean it’s not like the rebellion could openly place an order 80 thousand of the lasers cannons X-Wing’s used without raise a ton of red flags,that some Imperial would catch.

[@FalconWindblader]

@@johnpatz8395 That's where having backings from quite a number of senators & industrials aligned with said senate come into play. The X-wings ain't exactly new tech & they definitely ain't built to be cutting edge, top of the line as well, just better built & packing better stuff than a regular TIE. All of that comes together to drive the prices down.

[@tsorevitch2409]

@@johnpatz8395 80k guns is insignificant amounts in galaxy with millions habitual world and with 100k+ star destroyers. Coruscant alone should have more fatal speeder crashes each day

[@johnpatz8395]

@@tsorevitch2409 true, but the empire doesn’t care about speeder crashes, but they do care about military weapons being supplied to rebels

The Tie fighter is one of the most misunderstood ships in star wars... it is _designed_ to disintegrate spontaneously whenever hit, in order to form a deadly cone of shrapnel, propelling it into the general direction of the approaching enemy... all it's agility is about giving maximum control in the cone shaping process directly to its pilot.

[@KalashVodka175]

*Banzai song intensifies*

[@DrAnarchy69]

The Empire also just plain doesn’t care about the lives of its soldiers. No surprise, Fascists have never and will never care about the lives of their soldiers, let alone those they genocide.

[@robertagu5533]

Bet they didn't tell the pilots that

@@robertagu5533 have you seen them flying?

[@brianrolfe1742]

So it's a flying shape charge.....gotcha

[@earthling19]

Ever since Rebels portrayed them operating at low altitude, I've also imagined Ties as filling the role of helicopters, though the maintenance costs of a twin rotorcraft are insane. When I consider mass production and cheap uniformity, electric scooters feel like the closest modern equivalent

[@FalconWindblader]

They don't need anything specific to fit the role of choppers. Virtually ANY SW aircraft is capable of staying mid-air static & fly just about 2 feet above ground at very low speeds. Any aircraft of just about any size that ain't bigger than a gunship can be a chopper.

[@toddkes5890]

I've seen them as a TIE fighter is an ultra-light, while the X-Wing is a medium fighter: TIE - two 'guns', high maneuverability X-Wing - four 'guns', 2 proton torpedo launchers, hyper drive, and droid interface Similarly, TIE fighters do have shields, but those shields are Ultra-light. Imagine the guns and Shields like this using D&D terms: TIE = 2 guns, each doing d6 damage, Shields provide Damage Resistance 2 X-Wing = 4 guns, each doing d6 damage, Shields provide Damage Resistance 6 So a TIE fighter that does a normal set of shots at an X-Wing is doing 2d6 damage (2-12 pts), but the X-Wing ignores the first 6 pts of damage. This means the tie is really doing 1-6 pts of damage, and the average is only 1.5 pts of damage. The TIE fighter has to figure out some way to boost the damage when firing in order to decently hurt the X-Wing (long burst, doubling the damage being done would mean 4-24 pts dmg per shot (averaging ~8 pts of damage) Similarly, an X-Wing firing a normal set of shots against a TIE fighter is doing 4d6 damage, while the TIE ignores the first 2 pts of damage. So the X-Wing is only doing 2-22 pts of damage (avg = 12 pts) , instead of 4-24. So the X-Wing can casually do 50% more damage with its guns than the TIE can do with a dedicated long burst.

[@ancaplanaoriginal5303]

@@FalconWindblader LAATs were the Huey Hog of the star wars galaxy tho

[@jessebraughler8594]

Other factor that can really reduce cost in the SW universe is the fact they can build in zero-G. This means you don't have to factor gravity, air quality, or even the weight of the materials into the manufacturing costs since they are negligible or don't exist in zero-G.

[@ocadioan]

On the other hand, you are also building in space, so you have to factor in a bunch of other stuff, such as metal instantly welding to other metal due to no surface layer of air-corrosion. As well as inertia in a zero-g environment making it harder to slow moving objects down, or to place precision pieces. As well as needing that space suit that even in the SW universe is still not as sleek and easy to operate in as your own body on earth.

[@MotoroidARFC]

@@ocadioan it's been shown that ground based factories, manned or automated, still exist and only the really big stuff is built in space. Han's ship would be easier to build on the ground since its major components are relatively small.

[@mrblack5145]

That's what I was thinking.. no gravity, or even no atmosphere, would make a fully automated assembly line much easier. Heat dissipates faster, magnets collect slag, things like that. The one thing that's always bugged me in 'assembly line' sequences is showing painted products being welded on or next to, as the spatter could easily ruin or damage the finish. Speaking as someone who has worked in an automotive factory, that little detail always bugged me.

[@ocadioan]

@@mrblack5145 Uh, heat dissipates _slower_ with no atmosphere due to losing convection transfer and now solely relying on radiation to bleed off excess heat. Also, using magnets to collect slag requires all the slag to be magnetic in the first place, and also requires a giant magnet next to a bunch of electronics and magnetic parts(since the slag from them need to be magnetic).

[@slugman7070]

Capital ships/large cruise liners are built in space where as personal spacefraft are built planet side.

[@MikeWasThere]

"I'm bad at math ...... for an Asian" that had me rolling

[@Kurama420]

Same...

[@GenerationTech]

there's like a different grading scale for us its bs

[@Kurama420]

@@GenerationTech Generation Tech: Hoh? You're approaching me? Instead of running away, you come right to me? Even though your grandfather, Joseph, told you the secret of The World, like an exam student scrambling to finish the problems on an exam until the last moments before the chime? Dolphin: *dolphin noises*

[@dandane5227]

So still good

[@pdxmarine1430]

Another thing to take into account is that the 80 million price of the F35 includes the lifetime of maintenance and parts support, not just the actual price of taking delivery of the aircraft

[@eddapultstab2078]

I would assume that the lifetime, thinking 15-30 years, of parts would easily amount to a fighter itself, possibly two. So the plane itself would be around 25 to 40 million depending on average maintenance costs that must be done in its lifetime?

[@znail4675]

No, F-35 costs more then 80 million dollars, even excluding service and support.

[@gunpowdertimothy5644]

Still one of the cheapest fifth-Gens in service

[@EdyAlbertoMSGT3]

@@gunpowdertimothy5644 ....Not really a 5th gen without thrust vectoring or supercruise though....

[@RaderizDorret]

No. $80 Million is the flyaway cost, not the lifetime cost.

[@HolyknightVader999]

Because the tech is so common by that time, and the X-Wing doesn't even go for newer tech, it's just older, sturdier tech. Like the Y-Wing. It's basically a Z-95 with extra weapons and shielding.

[@MrChickennugget360]

I think regarding the X-wing its mainly the hyper-drive that is "new tech" since starwars weapons, shields and space flight are not new in fighters but hyper-drives were not present in mass produced fighters until during the Clone Wars.

[@brodriguez11000]

The Volkswagen of space.

[@HolyknightVader999]

@@brodriguez11000 Exactly.

[@MinedMaker]

Considering how failry average rag-tag people like Han Solo had access to starships which (although definitely inferior) could somewhat mimmic the performance of the era's military starfighters, and how in real life, normal civillians can aquire vehicles that mimmic the army's fighting vehicle in performance, the price disparity makes more sense from that perspective. Automobiles instead of jetfighters. You make a good point.

[@brodriguez11000]

The fact they had so many capable pilots is the amazing thing for both sides.

[@MinedMaker]

@@brodriguez11000 Yeah, except it seems like space craft piloting in the SW universe is more like getting your driver's licence for us, at least that's the impression I get with every single random-ass 16-20 year old in the movies somehow being an experienced ace pilot.

[@johnminer8672]

Me: I'm completely stressed and overwhelmed with everything that I need to get done right now. Also me: I think I really need to understand the finite details of how the Star Wars economic system works and why tie fighters are relatively so cheap.

[@she_who_dares9713]

SAME 😂

[@JebFromWarmDays]

Didn’t have to call me out like that 👀

[@fbaxter8551]

If you wanted to call me out like that, you could have contacted me personally 😤

[@KaoretheHalfDemon]

I believe the fact that droids most likely build most ships is another reason why they are so cheap.

[@tenn_ore]

Very solid reasoning.

[@leosaiko]

Yep. Also being able to mine for the materials literally everywhere in the galaxy and not being limited to the resources of your own planet is also very helpfull. I kinda expected a little more in this Video than just "scaling"

[@tsorevitch2409]

SW galaxy also have extremely cheap logistics - you can take goods across the galaxy for basically cost of pilot salary and minor maintenance expenses for the ship. And it will be matter of days not month or years

[@GeneGear]

@@tsorevitch2409 Depends on where you are going. As long as you stick with the main hyperspace trade lanes, you can cross half the galaxy in a week, yes (the latest movies speed things up considerably because people sitting around in hyperspace messes with pacing and drama). Once you start going outside the main routes, though, things take longer and longer as you have to take more circuitous routes through hyperspace because even minor gravity wells can easily cause death from smacking into something you can't see. If you are trying to go somewhere totally unmapped, prepare to spend months trying to plot a course between no more than a few star systems, unless you have The Force preventing you from exploding when you make effectively random jumps.

[@tsorevitch2409]

@@GeneGear routes are Numerous and very widespread. Sort of like roads in Europe or USA. Yes there ar places that are harder to get but generally it's not an issue

[@geneva214]

For star wars having ultra futuristic things we could only imagine there aren't any stealth Starfighters

[@CoolMyron]

there are fighters that can become fully invisible. both to the eye and to all radar. Mauls ships in BF2 is one example

[@geneva214]

@@CoolMyron Im talking about on a scale like the f35

[@Kubinda12345]

Yes, there are. Or at least they used to be since in Legends the was e.g. TIE/ph phantom. And even in canon you have stealth ships like Darth Maul's Scimitar, IPV-2C Stealth Corvertte which was a prototype Anakin used during the battle of Christophsis or Carrion Spike, which was the same type of corvette used by Tarkin during the Imperial era.

[@CoolMyron]

@@geneva214 other then speed most of these ships have the f35 beat. But that is only because they are made for space travel not really for atempshere. Plus SW is just bad with numbers

[@DMando04]

There was the StealthX from Legacy of the Force book series. It's an X-Wing with stealth tech

[@Anon33467]

As with the last video on this topic, I'll again point out that Star Wars lore describes the 150 million credit price for a Star Destroyer as representing the total economic output of multiple combined star systems, while the Earth's economic output is about 90 trillion dollars. That ration would mean 1 credit is worth $600,000 dollars. The actual takeaway is that Star Wars prices seem so strange not because of insane economies of scale for some products and none at all for others, but rather because the writers couldn't be bothered to actually be consistent or logical.

[@coryfice1881]

It's honestly very charming having a setting where the technology is so advanced yet so backwards at the same time that us humans on earth can actually compete with the galaxy all due to the writers not giving a shit about the finer nerdier details. It fits the whole ww2 in space and ww1 tactics with lasers and napoleonic era officers aesthetic.

[@the_retag]

Many star systems have shit economic output...

[@coryfice1881]

@@the_retag I know especially in the outer rim where even third world countries have a better output it seems.

[@cornonjacob]

Definitely inconsistency with the writers but I feel like it's not actually quite that extreme. As has been mentioned, there are a ton of planets that produce basically nothing, and it seems like the population of Earth dwarfs that of a majority of star wars worlds. Also, the credit's value is balanced around a whole galaxy, not just one (that point might be totally irrelevant I realize it just feels like that should be a factor lol). Also, even if there's a 1-1 conversion, it seems like people generally have less money? Idk ig we generally just get the pov of the poor worlds that are the equivalent of third world countries so they might not be fair either.

[@Ties_-sg6im]

It’s a Made up world

[@daniels7907]

Jet fighters are not generally very useful for basic transportation even if you can afford that much fuel. Yet most SW fighters (including later TIE models) can literally be used to travel halfway across the galaxy. But even just being able to fly around inside of a single star system is impressive. So we may need to just treat SW economics the same way that the incredibly nebulous economy of the Federation in Star Trek works.

[@Mortablunt]

We don’t really get to see the star trek federation economy any meaningful way because basically everything we get to see is locked away inside of a military bubble.

[@inspectorwhoreacts]

Flying in space probably doesn't use much fuel once momentum is going.

[@daniels7907]

@@inspectorwhoreacts - The only times you'll ever see an SW ship with it's main engines turned off is if it is stationary or wrecked. Plus, momentum doesn't carry you through hyperspace. If the drive is off the ship immediately reverts to realspace and may even be near-stationary there.

[@kurtinfl]

The analogy of aircraft with reciprocating piston internal combustion powerplants is especially apt and probably the best explanation as to the relative costs of starfighters vs modern jets. In our modern world piston engines are ubiquitous and are the dominant powerplant for all vehicles while jet/turbine engines are essentially more exotic and less common and thus more specialized. In SW the engines used to power their spacecraft are the dominant powerplants for all vehicles and are thus commonplace and scales of production mean they are much lower cost items than jet engines are in our world.

[@3Rayfire]

The 25,000 years thing is what immediately jumped to mind. Any spacefaring craft in Star Wars is basically as relatively complex as a car to us. Though the age of the technology is more comparable to the wheel. In fact, the wheel is substantially younger than hyperdrive. Never forget that the Millennium Falcon is basically a Mac Truck rigged with smuggling space and and turbo for outrunning the cops. Any starfighter is basically a car with guns strapped to it. Padme's chrome luxury yacht is a Maybach. Any conveyance that can't leave the atmosphere, like the skycars on Coruscant and Bespin are basically motorized scooters by comparison.

[@arx3516]

It amazes me how in Star Wars technology stagnated for millennia while in Gundam's Universal Century it run at break neck speed, with the protagonist mech, the RX78 being an invincible beast at the start of the One Year War (wich lasted one year) and ending up as an outdated piece of junk by the end of it. And of course the prices per unit for mobile suits were extremely high.

[@hunterkiller1440]

"It's not about the money, it's about sending a message."

[@KimchiFarts]

I think another thing to point out is that we are only using one planet’s resources to manufacture our jets. Star Wars has an entire galaxy’s worth of resources, so I imagine materials are very cheap due to this

[@lerneanlion]

Palpatine: I AM THE SENATE! Banking Clan: No, you['re the banks. Mace Windu: Neither of those, you are. Yoda: Stole the way I speak, you did.

[@RaderizDorret]

You can also look at World War II: the Bf 109 is the most produced fighter in history and by 1941, the Bf 109F cost 56000 RM or $140,000 in 1940 USD. Adjusting for inflation, the 109 cost about $3 million a pop. Given the Bf 109 was very much like the TIE fighter in terms of role, it would be the closest analogue.

[@dawsonreum8096]

Another good example of something like this is the spice trade. Hundreds of years ago, certain spices were nearly worth their weight in gold, today they are a few dollars for a container. Modern transportation, processing, and gathering methods have become far more efficient and advanced, allowing for cheaper prices.

[@jamesbrice3267]

Tea in lockboxes for example.

[@banebeard]

I always kind of assumed that a credit was equivalent to like 10 dollars US, course even then an X-Wing would be stupidly cheap for what it is

[@MrChickennugget360]

I also like the Idea that Most planets have their own curancey and use "Republic Credits/Imperial Credits" as an exchange rate when doing off world Trade. Thus buying power would vary massively from system to system. Thus you would never buy a "cup of coffee" for a "Republic Credit" but instead buy 100 pallets of coffee beans for 100 Republic Credits and then sell off in local currant with less unit value.

[@banebeard]

@@MrChickennugget360 would help explain why some systems are more important than others besides just resources

[@martindinner3621]

It would be more accurate to compare the X-wing to an F-16. Mass produced, not a cutting edge product, but a competitive product. A baseline F-16 sells for $12.7 million, still not on the same level, but much closer.

[@Kumimono]

I was under the impression the X-wing was built in sheds around the galaxy, so to speak. Not much room for scale, when you need to stay hidden? Speaking of building stuff in sheds, about them turbojets, Germany fielded them first in combat, and weren't in the best of terms with US, UK or USSR. So I think they were able to develop them, also. :p

[@danamoore1788]

Built in sheds, but all the parts are off the shelf.

[@jtjames79]

@@danamoore1788 Built in sheds by Droid slave labor with off the shelf parts.

[@danamoore1788]

@@jtjames79 Droids? We can't afford droids! Use the twi'leks.

[@stdesy]

The X-Wing was made by Incom in a factory for sure. They probably sold to a wide variety of customers and the rebels got them because they were available.

[@Angelfyre.]

It’s kinda like comparing a P-51 Mustang to a F-22 Raptor, ones old tech that’s become cheaper to make (Although they are collectible so a P-51 still costs millions) but in terms of manufacturing it’s easier to make a P-51 than a F-22

[@HikariKobayashi]

A Thunder Mustang, a homebuilt 75% scale replica of a P-51, can cost around $500k completed (this includes engine and avionics). There are other replicas at the same scale that cost less, but the Thunder Mustang is the highest performance one that I've seen.

[@andrewbogard2411]

You got to also have to take into account that the raw materials for starwars fighters will probably be a whole lot cheaper then the raw Materials needed for the f35. Starwars has space mining, cheap space travel and mostly mature technology.

[@jameseichinger7262]

I thought I had read somewhere that the T-65 was such a boon for the Rebellion because the design repurposed readily available parts. It could be serviced with parts salvaged from ARC-170s and Z-95s which drastically reduced maintenance costs and simplified supply lines. We also know that InCom had streamlined it’s flight experience. Someone proficient with the InCom T-16 SkyHopper would transfer that proficiency to the cockpit of a T-65 X-Wing. This is actually the Star Wars spy craft story I want to see. Show me the defection of the InCom engineers and their families to the Rebel Alliance. And show me the Alliance as they realize this isn’t just another fighter design, but the perfect tool for what they need in an asymmetrical war.

[@CEOsario]

Nice explanation ( I already knew why)...Starting with Ford - good job...I sent my grandkids to this video...Thanks again for sharing...

[@FinneasJedidiah]

When you hear him talk about how Henry Ford made it so cars didn't cost an entire years salary, and then realize that in America the average price for a new car is thousands of dollars above the median individual income...

[@theliato3809]

Star Wars megacorps have so many sources of revenue they can make things without needing to rip people off. Also the empires a lot better at handling money

[@falloutfart9917]

Aside from the deathstars

[@theliato3809]

@@falloutfart9917 nah that didn’t hurt them financially just under minded the empire in terms of governance and deep philosophy by finally breaking with the history of the republic

[@falloutfart9917]

@Theliato what I mean is the empire could have used those resources to say build more Star Destroyers and other ships or if old raisin face was hell bent on getting a planet destroying weapon he could have hollowed out an astroid and built it using the rock as a shell

[@Baconator5642]

@@falloutfart9917 or simply built alot of smaller death stars, a fraction of that stations power would boil the oceans and burn the surface of an entire planet, it couldve been alot more terrifying to have, say, 30 of them instead of one

[@PaulJWells-ud2eq]

A Mon Calamari Cruiser could be closer in comparison to a F-35 due to time of construction & technological parts. Great topics with Andor! Very glad to finally see on screen all the "subtext" and background info only found in Legends material or comics; for which, I've spent years explaining the many "whys" asked so often by casual fans or worst...haters. Great work! Thanks

[@federov100]

Expect far lower prices for manufactured goods and commodities in a galactic economy due to ample supply of resources, processed materials, labor and energy. Additionally, technology is ancient. For example, hyperspace is tens of thousands years old, components would be widely available and therefore cheap.

[@fnunez]

Lol saber drop. One other thing you didn't mention is raw materials cost. A lot of the price tag of a modern jet goes into the metals needed for the advanced alloys you did mention, and if you have an entire galaxy to get resources from there's going to be very little difference in the price tag between using rhodium and using aluminum.

[@MH-jt3lx]

Mass assembly of final product,standardized parts, automation of lines, cheap raw materials, parts that are used in multiple other final products in other lines ( like transparasteel ) and collection of raw materials by automation. All would make a product very very very cheap.

[@rahbaralhaq]

I think the Mig-21 would a more close equlivant to a Tie fighter. They were short range simple interceptors that could still hit mach 2 and carried a decent armartment. Not to mention they were very cheap, around $2 million per plane in in 1974.

[@jjakehicks]

Always looked at Tie fighters as the Japanese Zeros

[@asaschuemann9545]

Love the saber-drop in place of a mic drop XD

[@randallsanchez3161]

The Ion engine technically already exists. A guy did a video on it about how a university group made one then attached it to a model plane. He made one and it was crazy how much air it pushed with no moving parts. The TIE is more like the Mig-17 single purpose interceptor vs. the F4 multipurpose jet. Except the Mig would have been faster than the F4 instead of the other way around. The MIG was cheaper but older. The F4 was newer with more tech but a lot more expensive. Unlike the Xwing the F4 had the speed advantage which gave it advantages over the MIG.

[@JaredLS10]

Should have spliced the scene from Robot Chicken when Obi-wan drops his light saber and keeps falling thru the decks of the ship when you dropped yours.

[@davidjames2684]

The car analogy is very accurate.

[@compel6552]

This fits in with the idea that the TIE Defender, a genuinely revolutionary elite fighter, was a huge and big enough deal that it was seen and discussed at equivalent budgetary meetings as the Death Star program.

[@flavba3847]

Tie fighter may cost 3x cheaper than x+wing since does not include life support and warp drive and small body with two engine.

[@chaomatic5328]

I was expecting nerdy ranting, found a thought-out analysis with real world comparison. Kudos to you!

[@Uraqt_1337]

The automobile is actually a German invention by Carl Benz

[@Rtw941]

I enjoyed the Star wars version of mic drop at the end.

[@paweplaczek2191]

Another thing is that materials are more avaible excluding some rare stuff, logistic is cheaper and faster and workforce is also not much of a problem. Single core ship on paper if i did math right can carry 3,5 year of earth crude steel production. You can always find some place with surface deposits and some poor b...ds willing to shovel it for fraction of its cost.

[@pyeitme508]

Please make video(s) how effective if the rebels used real life various types of Kalashnikov rifles than blasters?

[@17mindgate]

Actually I think they have one... or several in legends. They are called Slugthrowers and there is one model that was very similar to an AK. I will edit/ extend this comment if I find the actual model. Update: I believe that the "Imperial Heavy Repeater" meets this requirement. There were a few others, but this seemed like the closest comparable equivalent.

[@pyeitme508]

@@17mindgate oh...

[@lokai7914]

The prices for Star Wars vehicles are ridiculous, even when compared to each other.

[@festusthecat]

Much of the cost of earth military craft is paying for research and development of technology. Star Wars universe has been using the same technology for thousands of years

[@imperialofficerremusblackw8452]

Space travel is so commonplace and the fact that bandits and pirates are very much a thing might explain why. Most companies likely purchase fighters to provide escort for their freighters, and starfighter manufacturers like haver fighters patrolling shipyards.

[@BF-I-II-V-V-III-VII]

Space inflation must be crazy when things go wrong...

[@ryankohnenkamp8946]

8:30 To be fair, your average Honda Civic also doesn't have a hyperdrive, shields, or a pressurized hull, so your comparison is pretty good...

[@GenerationTech]

I like that you said the average Honda Civic because we know they got some sleepers out there

[@nuggetdoozy7831]

Def worth the saber drop! I knew your conversions were sithtastic!

[@Knight121198]

Starships are essentially cars in the star wars universe, the YT-1300 might as well be a big rig with an apartment installed.

[@jaydub5515]

Nice Saber Drop at the end. I dig your data, man!

[@drigondii]

A lot of aircraft cost is in R&D recovery and low production rates, too. Starfighter manufacturing in Star Wars is a well established industry. It's more in line with an artillery piece than a fighter jet since in universe there's nothing special or complicated to it.

[@Dreamfox-df6bg]

There is also the detail that the technology for space and hyperspace travel has been around for millennia. In 'A new Hope' Luke mentions that with the 10.000 Credits Han Solo asks they could nearly buy their own ship. It wouldn't be big, fast or have more than the basic armament civilians are allowed, but it would be ship.

[@Anyone00TZ]

I'm guessing the in real life reason is that the costs come from stat blocks in a table-top RPG book(s) and the player-characters were intended to have a hope of purchasing a star fighter.

[@lonniecombs7431]

Also based on a line by Luke in ep4 ' we could buy our own ship for that' to Hans price for smuggling them offworld

[@Anyone00TZ]

@@lonniecombs7431 In that situation it would likely be for a civilian transport and not something like a military fighting vehicle/vessel.

[@sundragon7703]

That was an interesting argument Allen. That being what you have stated, then what kind of "state of the art" star fighter can be designed or acquired for 80 million credits/craft. Is it some kind of super TIE Defender with all the bells & whistles that was made by fairies and elves?

[@mariestidola3573]

I might think why Fighters in star wars are way cheaper than earth counter part is because the abundance materials coming from a lot of planets in the galaxy and probably the advance of production and manufacturing. Forgot to add that the logistics in star wars are astronomical way ahead than us i mean transporting raw and process materials at hyper speed

[@The_Lucent_Archangel]

Literally all you guys had to do was point out how inflated the price of military hardware in general is, which is by design. You guys have pointed out Eisenhower's farewell speech and the dangers of the military industrial complex before, even.

[@FokkeWulfe]

@0:51 Blue Angels, practicing, if I'm right, right off the cost of Florida, likely right here in Jax. Also, the Airshow at NAS is in town, and I've been getting to see them doing stunts for a week. Caught the Fleur-de-lis yesterday at work.

[@CrimsonTemplar2]

The Honda Civic bit slayed. 😂😂😂 Great video.

[@virgilxavier1]

Seems unlikely the conversion rate would be one to one in 2022 seeing that the prices were all written up between 1975 and 2022 with most of the prices cited being from the early 90s RPG.

[@plaguexyz666]

Brilliant well researched video ... Very interesting .. One of your best cheers ....peace

[@ElTigreDelNorte_]

The high cost of our tech mostly comes from the recency of the tech and the rarity of the materials. I imagine with how “old” the tech is and how prevalent/abundant resource extraction would be it kinda makes sense that the cost of production would drop significantly

[@SigmaPrimus]

I agree with everything in this video, except the exchange rate. I have mentioned this in another video (and, obviously, I'm going to mention it here as well), if the starting point is to ask yourself how much 80,000,000 credits would be in today's money, that's the wrong starting point. The events of Rogue One happened immediately prior to A New Hope. Luke says in A New Hope that you could almost buy a ship for 15,000 credits, and Han Solo (who would have a better idea of what ships cost) does not disagree. So if we follow the analogy, the starting point is to answer what would $80,000,000 in today's money look like in the 1970s. With that number, the next question to answer is how many F-4 Phantoms could that money buy in the 1970s.

[@angry_eck]

At the time ww2 fighters cost at most $138,000 and that's a top of the line ship designed with high speed and maneuverability and heavy cannons

[@TheGyoushi]

The missile boat in star wars is more comparable to the F35, I remember a briefing saying that it cost more than the star destroyer you are deploying from.

[@michaeltuite5510]

love the "mic drop" haha.

[@shirgall]

The inflation rate is just higher in this galaxy.

[@maliciousmobius2725]

Fun video and for that a fun fact. If Earth was in SW (at least Legends) and wanted to buy something form space, we would need to either exchage it in chocolate or make a currency backed by it. It's becouse there were around half a dozen palnets that were able to grow the plant in the whole galaxy while many wanted to eat it. Also, depending on the timeline, Earth would be the bigggest/secound biggest prodeucer of it due to Yuzang Vong war (they destroyed the ecosystem of all chocolate planets exept one).

[@grisom5863]

But we have to make sure that there's still enough chocolate to not only satisfy the elite of the galaxy's desires but continue to not cause a shortage for our own market for chocolate and not to screw with our environment, economy, and sovereignty.

[@maliciousmobius2725]

@@grisom5863 tell that to Palpy, not me! At The New Hope point, the only thing that would save Alderaan would be a cocoa plantation on the planet itself!

[@marrqi7wini54]

@@maliciousmobius2725 I guess there's no point around it. We're going to have to get Isaac Arthur to help bring our agriculture to meet galactic demand while protecting our world. Also the original comment did say after the Vong war, Palpatine was gone by then. Though give enough favors to the right people and you'll get something out of it.

[@maliciousmobius2725]

@@marrqi7wini54 The biggest or second biggest producer. We don't know how much they were producing per planet, but seeing that Star Wars likes one bio planets, Earth would produce less then average. Still, it would be like idk kayber criatal or beskar class of rarity and thuss very valebule. For those who don't know thouse examples, thing about chocolate as a tastier version of uranium.

[@richardbutton1179]

The materials to build a ship are so commonly available in mass quantities could be the reason why they are cheap to build

[@pyeitme508]

Though USMC, USAF & USN be like: "THAT'S CHEAP BS & THE F-35 RULES!"

[@Lex_chats]

I still think it’s a bit cheap because the most produced aircraft in history a Cessna 172 it’s still $400,000 new

[@GirlPainting]

there is also one other thing to consider. star wars is based on world war 1 and 2 and basicly everything we see on screen, from vehicles, to weapons has an equivilant in the real world from that time perioud. the X-wing is basicly a 180° turned double decker plane, same goes for the Ship from Resistance, witch is a 180° turned Corsair. Weapons are WW2 equilevants and so on. so to base the prize of an X-wing, you should look at a WW2 equivilant like a spitfire or Corsair and not a modern times Jet ;-) and like you mentioned in the video, this is much closer to the prize we get in star wars.

[@zeratul____1228]

The best part of the Star Wars universe is how there seems to be no observable inflation in the market as things cost generally the same. How they solved this is truly interesting

[@starpilot101]

Star Wars military vehicles are most comparable to the mass produced Shermans and T-34s of WWII, where the doctrine calls for a compromise on quality to streamline mass production.

[@johnwkindig1613]

Important note: Buying an re-used Y-Wing is nothing like purchasing a new F-35. Rather think the used market. One can go out today and buy a 1960's era Soviet Mig-21 for roughly only 100-200K. That's a working fighter jet still for under a 1/4 of a million. It isn't going to be new or high tech, but it will fill a role. The Mig-21 was a mass produced fighter, and it is old enough most people don't want it, but not old or rare enough to be valuable. Honestly you could probably find static display ones for like 50k if you want a fighter jet in your yard.

[@tonyselwah6420]

Cool vid. You might want to know that Canada developed the modern us jet engine. The project was called the Avro Arrow.

[@Kierkegaardmyheart]

Such a well researched video. Well done!

[@jvjjjweitzel153]

Ah economies of scale. Still, a few million TIE Fighters seems too few for a Galaxy. Scifi writers have no sense of scale.

[@gehrigstory6674]

Video Idea! How did Coruscant manage to go from a (relatively) normal planet (Biomes, Natural Environments, Land Features, etc.), to one as completely covered in urban sprawl as it is now, in the countless millennia between The Taung-Zhell War, and modern times? Did the planet itself just have so much mineral wealth, perfect for building material (Iron/Steel, Concrete, Glass-making material, Repulsorlift Generators, and fuel for those generators, and other things needed to build modern skyscraper-styled buildings), that you could just mine all that material out of Coruscant's crust, and other inner parts of itself, and build most of the whole Ecumenopolis (MOST, before you could get more of that material from other worlds in the galaxy through interstellar travel) out of it? Considering that most of Coruscant's history of terraforming itself into a planet-wide city happened before The Republic was a thing (Between The Taung-Zhell War, and The Rakatan Infinite Empire, later on), it's not like they got a lot of their material from other worlds (Since The Hyperdrive wasn't invented yet). Also, if we wanted to, could we do the same thing on Earth? Could we turn every square inch of land on Earth into a big city, while also draining our oceans too, to make more space to build more city-scape? Does Earth have enough mineral wealth to do it?

[@braincell4536]

Pretty simple. Corusant being the Capital of the Republic, it had much support to begin an Arcology project. But it was not overnight. It was done bit by bit layer upon layer. It had the materials from the millions of member worlds and most especially the outer rim territories and mid rim territories

[@gehrigstory6674]

@@braincell4536 But it didn't start turning into a planet-wide city once The Republic was born. It effectively already was such a world LONG before The Republic. (The Rakata, and Columni visited Coruscant long before The Republic, and they saw it already as a city-world by their eras. That's why The Rakata in particular couldn't have effective control of the planet, because it would be too difficult to completely control everything, what with the infinite opportunities for The Coruscanti to play Urban Warfare games with the invaders on Coruscant, wasting their empire's entire war machine on just taking one single world.) How could The Coruscanti have gotten all the building materials needed, if they needed to get them from other worlds, yet it was at a time before The Hyperdrive was invented, and commonly used? I'm talking Legends Coruscant, specifically, in case you were thinking Disney Canon Coruscant at all.

[@melsilva9158]

The superalloys that make turbo fan blades is impressive to read about. Astrolloy, Inconel and Waspalloy are just a few of them. Most of those are based on Nickle, what superalloys using metals like Cobalt and Titanium will be discovered in the future?

[@isajmody2344]

Your brain would explode if you saw Ford's original shop. If you ever need a detailed tour of Detroit that makes sense of the disrepair, I know a guy that has a Lazerus ability to give life to that corpse of a city.

[@stormycatmink]

I actually made a similar argument with some friends recently in a gaming group about prices of things in general. The concept of production in the Star Wars universe is like taking the concept of the assembly line to and entirely new level. Combine in droid assembly and automation, not only in manufacturing itself, but also the entire supply chain, which today, most of these steps are still manual, and limited by the constraints of organic workers. Take all those constraints away because now even that is automated, and the cost of complex goods drops dramatically. Just like the cost of simple goods or assembly dropped when the industrial line was put into place.

[@michaelparrish4462]

It be cool if you talked about the Jedi's army of the light

[@darwinskeeper421]

Hmmm...this is making me think about the factors in the cost of general aviation aircraft. A basic two seat piston engined GA aircraft runs around $100,000 new. Part of the reason for the cost is that relatively low production numbers (compared to either cars or Star Wars spacecraft) keeps the amount of automation in their production lines low, and the number of man hours required to build one high. It should also be noted that most of the materials and structural forms used to build aircraft tend to limit the amount of automation that can be used on an airframe. The most affordable traditional airframe construction technique involves manufacturing parts froThm sheet aluminum and aluminum extrusions and fastening them using driven rivets. Not only does this usually involve the fabrication and assembly of many small parts and that these parts are held together using thousands of rivets. For each rivet used in an airplane, holes need to be drilled in each part, these holes may need to be deburred and a rivet must be installed and driven. Driving and bucking rivets is a skill intensive process that is not going to be easy to automate. Modern composite aircraft parts are built from layers of preimpregnated cloth (usually fiberglass, kevlar or carbon fiber) laid up over a mold and cured in a high pressure oven called an autoclave. The layup process for parts has struck me as very difficult to automate, and even in high volume production might be cheaper to do using manual labor. Curing composite structures using an autoclave is something of a black art that requires some trial and error to figure out the correct temperatures and pressure to create a part with a minimum of areas where the cloth layers are not fabricated. On the positive side, the parts created by this process can be fairly large and complex. The average production car is fabricated by spot welding sheet steel parts. Spot welding is a simple process that is very suitable for automated production of large numbers of vehicles. It is very difficult to spot weld the aluminum for aircraft construction because the heat could weaken the aluminum. I don't understand how most Star Wars space frames are manufactured, but I am assuming some form of welding is used, and that the process is automation friendly.

[@Alexander-cq9tv]

well what was 150,000 at the time of release for star wars vs now?

[@kingmasterlord]

60,000 credits? why aren't players allowed to build their own fleets in games then? I *wear* shit that cost that much in Kotor

[@randallsanchez3161]

Fighter jets don't actually cost $80 million dollars. The $80 million not only covers the cost of the jet but 10 years worth of parts and maintenance support from the manufacturer. Fighter jets use turbine engines which are rare in normal society. Star Wars fighters use engines which are in common use throughout the galaxy. For example, imagine how much cheaper it would cost if an F35 used a diesel engine instead of a very intricate jet engine. During WWII tanks and aircraft were using engines that could be mass produced in car factories. There was a lot of technology swapping happening back then where processes were just upscaled then had issues worked out. We don't see that kind of upscaling happening with current military vehicles as much as before which makes the costs higher since there aren't too many off the shelf parts that can be used in their development.

[@craggywag5482]

The TIE Fighter is very similar aptly named F-104 Starfighter. They are both fast, dangerously no-frills, and produce a very unique sound.

[@thecactusman17]

The problem with "X-wing = used Ferrari $" is that at the production scales they're being created with they are actually too expensive. This is because Star Wars can't come to a decisive conclusion about what the actual economics and logistical barriers of Star Wars are. X-Wings are barely more advanced than TIE Fighters and both ships are based on conceptual warfare that hasn't existed IRL since the 1960s. But they're priced like WW2 aircraft - and while prices look low in retrospect, adjusted for inflation a factory fresh P-51 Mustang would cost $850,000 today.

[@alessiodecarolis]

There's also a technological/economics' difference, imagine how much would've costed f.e. to Cromwell 's England build and maintain a wing of G. Gladiators, a less than stellar fighter, but neverthless an incredible technologyical piece, for SW galactic civilization the use of hyperdrives, anti-g devices & so on is common ground, they have only to apply a pre-existing tech, without having to invest in ROE.

[@davidblalock9945]

You forgot one thing that really reduces costs, the slave labor of the droids.

[@omegon2540]

I know it’s not cannon But wouldn’t those credits be more useful in making a legion of k wings

[@LAV-III]

K wings are great but you have to remember that it’s a bomber. You’re gonna need a multi role fighter or intercepter to support them. After all bombers aren’t ready the best at dogfights.

[@lukerettie]

K-wing also had no hyperdrive i believe. For the Rebellion hyperspace capable fighters were essential at this time to carry out the hit-and-fade attacks that were their main method of fighting the Empire

[@charleslefebvre5515]

Like the others have said they had no hyperdrive capability. So the rebels would've had to rely and larger transports to get this ships into range. It's would've take away the ability for the run and gun attacks the rebels used so successfully. Also another flaw in your idea is that they weren't built until 16 aby.

[@omegon2540]

Seriously the x wing has the power of plot armour for no reason The k wing can solo a capital ship with no plot armour

[@lukerettie]

Maybe so, but as pointed out, the time Andor is set the K-wing might not even be a drawing board project. Bit difficult to buy something that doesnt exist yet.

[@granatmof]

The cost of the xwing works essentially as a rough adjustment for inflation for 1977 for the P51 Mustang. Since starfighter combat style is very much WW2 it makes sense in many ways. In relative comparison, the sensors and display capacity of the F35 is significantly above the the xwing and P51. The Aviationics is why the F35 is preferred over the F22 by the Airforce.