Posted on 10/27/2015 6:05:53 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
The U.S. Air Force award on October 27 of the LRS Bomber to Northrop Grumman commits the U.S taxpayer to a trillion-dollar burden. The award merits comment on two levels: as part of the overall trillion-dollar burden, and, discussed later, the business significance as an individual award.
With the award of the LRS Bomber contract at $800 million per plane – or $80 billion for the fleet — the government – and the taxpayer – are further committed to a trillion-dollar burden. Piece by piece, the Department of Defense is contracting for an entirely new Cold War “strategic triad.” In the original Cold War, the government needed – and paid enormously for – a strategic triad of nuclear bombers, nuclear submarines (and/or nuclear carriers), and nuclear missiles to threaten the Soviet Union if necessary with retaliation.
It seemed for some decades that with the demise of the Soviet Union, the Cold War was over. But, today, we are doing it again though no one knows how to pay for it all. I have discussed in prior pieces how the Navy is already moving ahead on a new generation of nuclear carriers and submarines, and how observers have estimated the whole package at a trillion dollars.
Apparently the justification for this is the aggressiveness of Vladimir Putin, Russia’s leader. But, Russia is hobbled by an economic recession, exacerbated by Western sanctions over Ukraine and the fall of oil prices. A trillion dollars seems high for dealing with Russia.
Significantly, the Air Force describes the “Long Range Strategic Bomber” (LRS or LRS-B) as not just for nuclear warfare, but also for conventional missions. But look at the announcement and the prior information. This is a high-tech stealth bomber costing $800 million apiece. Would we have used this in Afghanistan? No. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
I work in aerospace but I will be the first to admit that this program is just another huge boondoggle.
Well I just work on computers, but I think it’s about darned time.
Just saying.
The Air Force plans to purchase 80–100 LRS-B aircraft at a cost of $550 million each, at 2010 prices.
So in 5 years the cost went from $550M a piece to $800M? That's a lot of inflation!
Well, at least we get something out of this $1T vs the “Shovel Ready” projects spawned by 0bama’s $9T of debt.
PS - Didn’t the defense spending win the Cold War? Didn’t it keep it from becoming a hot war?
Silly argument. We used the B-2 in Afghanistan.
The long range means we don't have to base it overseas. We can strike anywhere with US-based aircraft.
There should be a debate over whether we buy the LRS, but if this is the best argument against the LRS, the opponents haven't much of a case.
$800 million PER plane?
The problem is how does a country of ~ 300 million counter a country of 1.6 billion, newly emergent, Communist and aggressive.
We will never have the kind of army they have. So...gotta make sure they know that annihilation will be certain if they get into it with us.
Y’all can guess which country that might be...
Wonder if the shenanigans that went on in the A12 Avenger II program will be repeated.
“Shuffle seating arrangements to satisfy different project managers.”
Active Duty ping.
No. The Soviets knew they could never match us in AIDS research and development of social support programs for their biracial children of lesbian couples. So they gave up.
Of course, the Grand Duchy of Leichtenstein! Scourge of the civilized world!
It may be a trillion dollar burden,
but at least it’s really shovel-ready.
Buy two at the regular price and get a third plane at absolutely the same price! But wait, there’s more!
Well, I have heard from ex-Northrop workers that the company wasn’t exactly known for their honesty and integrity. Perhaps they have reformed their ways.
Yep, maybe COLAs and the CPI should be determined by the cost of armaments?
If you like your Three Gorges Dam, you can keep your Three Gorges Dam.
[It may be a trillion dollar burden,
but at least it’s really shovel-ready.]
A few years ago a Democrat I know was complaining that the Iraq war had cost $1 trillion. I said, “So did the Stimulus. Which one produced the most jobs?” He never gave me an answer.
We will never have the kind of army they have. So...gotta make sure they know that annihilation will be certain if they get into it with us.
But where would we get into a land war with China?
A Boeing 777 cost $320 million each. Remove seats, change and strengthen wings, add bomb bay doors and add slope and curves to fuselage and change tail configuration and remove the wifi entertainment system. Still expensive but I would think still cheaper then what is propose. They could buy B1 bombers at about $300 million each. They already work well.
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