How ISIS and Boko Haram could change the way countries purchase air power

Like spaceships and sports stadiums, military strike jets typically aren’t the kind of things that companies build—much less sell—off the shelf. Take the Pentagon’s new F-35, for instance: Two decades and $400 billion in the making, the F-35 had nine committed customers lined up to buy thousands of aircraft (at between $80 million and $110 million per copy) before Lockheed Martin ever started bending metal in earnest. Rarely does a contractor fully develop a military jet on spec.

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