In article <31btidl3vu3unum96n2eq85skl8jojro68@4ax.com>, Stormin' Norman says...
>
>On 23 Jun 2018 13:06:34 -0700, Miloch <Miloch_member@newsguy.com>
>wrote:
>
>>The Air Force wanted to shut it down for one simple reason...money...the F-35 is
>>way behind schedule and way over budget
>
>Last I read the F-35 program is expected to exceed $1.4 trillion!
>Quite a few people are getting very wealthy at the expense of national
>defense and the taxpayer.
>
>I can't wait to see the actual cost of the B-21 program.
>
The running joke decades ago was that fighters and bombers would become so
expensive that the Air Force would only be able to afford ONE EACH...
One of the real problems is that the length of time from concept to finished
plane is so damn long that technology keeps changing and improving during the
design/development phase and that the services keep changing specifications to
make accommodations for those changes...the result is increased costs.
The F-35 was originally conceived in 1996!!!...the idea being that it would be a
one-size-fits-all fighter for all the services...just think of all the money you
could save!...never mind that each service wanted their own version that could
be expensively different from another service.
Congress is also complicit in Defense Dept costs...it's almost impossible to
cancel a weapon system because it doesn't work...the reason being it would put
factory employees out of work in states and districts affected. One of the ways
for the various services to ensure congressional support is to strive to make as
many different parts of a weapon system in as many different states and
districts as possible...the wider the spending...the more support for the
weapon.
Admirals/Generals still have to appear before congressional appropriations
committees to explain why money should be approved for spending on new planes
tanks ships etc.
*
|
|
![Favorite](javascript:myfavor('http://www.nzbot.com/article/alt.binaries.pictures.aviation/7786', 'Re: There Was No Way a P-51 Could Replace the A-10 - "1-Lto0DklDd68rXcH1el3uNw-970x350.jpeg" 45.3 kBytes yEnc')){kind=link}