If it's for aviation, it's incredibly expensive. This is largely down to the monopolistic supply chains that operate - you want a widget for your aircraft, it's gotta come from Lockheed, Boeing, BAE, EADS (Airbus), Northrup, GDC, Raytheon and that's pretty much it - yes, there are other suppliers, but they're the ones that the huge manufacturers pick. Because of the closed nature of the market, and the infinite pockets of their governmental buyers, they can charge whatever they fancy.
I spent some time in RAF repair hangers ~15 years ago, and remember being absolutely blown away by the cost of parts (for a Jaguar GR1B in this case). Torch lightbulb? £10,000. Red LED? £25,000. 50cm of 16swg wire, £5,000. Seat cushion? £90,000.
So a satellite tracker for £100k is an absolute bargain, in aerospace pricing terms.
How do they justify charging £25,000 for an LED? Is there something special about that LED, or is it literally just that they've got a defense contract, and once the contract is signed nobody is paying any attention?
When you have to keep an enormous amount of paperwork and for that single lead, tracking every single point in the supply chain, things get far more expensive.
This is part of it, yes. The MOD and others have an incredible filing system that hasn't changed in about 40 years. In essence, it comprises generating an absurd amount of hard-copy documentation for everything (buying a new LED for a fast jet, for instance, is probably 80 pages all said and done), filing that documentation (every department and even hangar have their own way of filing documentation), storing that filed documentation, and then 40 years later destroying that filed documentation without anyone having ever looked at it.
For the civilian stuff, the root causes of that insane widget cost are the cost of compliance with aviation regulations and the relatively small market.
I spent some time in RAF repair hangers ~15 years ago, and remember being absolutely blown away by the cost of parts (for a Jaguar GR1B in this case). Torch lightbulb? £10,000. Red LED? £25,000. 50cm of 16swg wire, £5,000. Seat cushion? £90,000.
So a satellite tracker for £100k is an absolute bargain, in aerospace pricing terms.