Flight Magazine has a piece on the Danish F-35 selection. Apparently they assessed their short list, F-35A, Typhoon and SH against set operational requirements to determine how well each type performed, how many would be needed and the estimated through life cost of ownership (a maximum and minimum band) for each type.
The F-35 was ranked at most capable, followed by the SH, with the Typhoon coming in last. Required numbers were determined to be 27, 34, 38 respectively, with the costs of ownership having the same rankings, 27 F-35s being cheapest and 38 Typhoons being the most expensive. What was interesting is although the F-35 had the greatest spread in cost of ownership (probably because there is less data available due to it being newer), the proposed F-35 fleets maximum estimated cost was still significantly lower than the minimum costs for the other two.
So basically fewer F-35s are required to conduct set operational requirements, the type is more capable and effective in conducting those missions and although, as a result fewer aircraft are needed to meet requirements, the cost of ownerships is significantly lower, meaning more than the 27 aircraft determined necessary to meet requirements, could actually be acquired for the money needed to do the job with SH or Typhoon.
