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America’s Worn-Out "Arsenal of Democracy" Looks More Like an Antiques Roadshow
The National Interest ^ | June 10, 2016 | Loren B. Thompson

Posted on 06/10/2016 3:28:16 PM PDT by Smittie

Chinese fighter pilots trying to enforce Beijing's control of nearby airspace must be confused about the U.S. military. They have been trained to expect the latest in military technology from the world's sole superpower. But the U.S. planes they intercept look more like exhibits from the Smithsonian Institution's Air and Space Museum.

Earlier this month, two Chinese jets intercepted a U.S. Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane over the East China Sea. The RC-135 is based on an airframe developed in the 1950s; the last military version of the airframe was assembled in 1965. In May, the Chinese intercepted a U.S. Navy EP-3 Aries II signals-intelligence plane. The propeller-driven EP-3 traces its lineage to the Eisenhower-era Lockheed Electra airliner. The P-3 Orion maritime-patrol aircraft from which it was derived has been in service for over 50 years.

And then there are the B-52 bombers that the Air Force used several years back to challenge Beijing's air-defense identification zone in the South China Sea. The Air Force stopped buying those in 1962, which means the aircraft it dispatched to enforce America's transit rights in the region were at least half a century old.

This is what happens when a country stops buying weapons but keeps fighting wars. It ends up with a worn-out arsenal that isn't up to the task of challenging emerging military powers on their home turf. The Obama Administration announced in 2012 that it was shifting the focus of American strategy to the Western Pacific, but it didn't do much to increase spending on weapons, which had been a bill-payer for other military needs since Obama took office. In fact, by stressing readiness, it guaranteed the joint force's weapons would wear out faster.

(Excerpt) Read more at nationalinterest.org ...


TOPICS: Military/Veterans
KEYWORDS: military; militaryspending
This sounds worse than when Carter was president..
1 posted on 06/10/2016 3:28:17 PM PDT by Smittie
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To: Smittie

The witnessed treason of the Mulatto in Chief bears fruit.


2 posted on 06/10/2016 3:32:22 PM PDT by Terry L Smith
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To: Terry L Smith

Suck it Obama. Suck it Bush


3 posted on 06/10/2016 3:34:54 PM PDT by atc23 (The Confederacy was the single greatest conservative resistance to federal authority ever)
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To: Smittie

Obama has loaded the military with gays and lesbians and left wing officers and has cut the manpower to a level not seen since before WWII.


4 posted on 06/10/2016 3:46:00 PM PDT by Blood of Tyrants (Socialism is always just one or a thousand or a million more murders away from utopia.)
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To: Smittie

How modern a fleet u need to drop those devastating leaflets that the left loves to fight with?


5 posted on 06/10/2016 3:49:46 PM PDT by Kudsman
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To: Smittie

There’s nothing wrong with using proven designs.


6 posted on 06/10/2016 3:52:40 PM PDT by Farmer Dean (Never be more than two steps away from your weapon.)
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To: Farmer Dean; Smittie
Farmer Dean :" There’s nothing wrong with using proven designs."

Then bring back the 'Warthog' , for close in , ground support !

7 posted on 06/10/2016 4:05:29 PM PDT by Tilted Irish Kilt ( British historian Arnold Toynbee - Civilisations die from suicide, not by murder.)
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To: Tilted Irish Kilt

Darn right!They decided to keep the A10 for a while longer,by the way.
My 1911A1 still works too,along with my O3A3.Stuff that works,just works.


8 posted on 06/10/2016 4:08:08 PM PDT by Farmer Dean (Never be more than two steps away from your weapon.)
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To: Smittie

Eight years of Obama has done tremendous damage to military readiness.


9 posted on 06/10/2016 5:01:41 PM PDT by Crucial
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To: Terry L Smith

“The witnessed treason of the Mulatto in Chief bears fruit.”

The degradation of our armed forces didn’t start with Zero. It took decades to dilapidate our fighting forces to the current level of weakness. It took a lot longer than eight years to destroy the greatest fighting force on the planet.

I will say this. If Trump doesn’t become President, I’m taking down Old Glory and running up the Gonzalez flag (look it up). And it won’t just be an annual remembrance of state pride. It will be a straightforward communication of real intent.


10 posted on 06/10/2016 5:23:36 PM PDT by Windflier (Pitchforks and torches ripen on the vine. Left too long, they become black rifles.)
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To: Farmer Dean

There’s nothing wrong with using proven designs.


While I value a proven design, there are considerations:

Metal fatigue.

Spare parts availability.

Inventory attrition.

Avionics equipment limitations.

Maneuvering envelope limitations.

Changing mission parameters.

You can only upgrade an old design so much. Putting an old design back into production from scratch is very costly, and almost never done; attrition alone is going to ultimately end its career.

(My father was an aircraft designer. I have more than a passing knowledge of military aircraft and their history.)


11 posted on 06/10/2016 5:36:43 PM PDT by YogicCowboy ("I am not entirely on anyone's side, because no one is entirely on mine." - JRRT)
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To: Farmer Dean
>There’s nothing wrong with using proven designs.

Not exactly news to the Chicoms

Started out as Tu-16That's an Anatov An-12

There's a Mig-19 in there somewhere

12 posted on 06/10/2016 6:43:46 PM PDT by Oztrich Boy (Rules are for the guidance of wise men and the blind obedience of fools - Solon, Lawmaker of Athens)
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To: YogicCowboy

When something’s at the end of it’s service life,it has to be replaced.But the design was solid.


13 posted on 06/10/2016 6:53:35 PM PDT by Farmer Dean (Never be more than two steps away from your weapon.)
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To: YogicCowboy; Farmer Dean
nothing wrong with taking a solid design and up grading it with current metallurgy, composites, avionics and weapons... the problem comes in as with the A-10 when the tooling was intentionally destroyed

might better pay for new tooling

14 posted on 06/10/2016 8:38:22 PM PDT by Chode (Stand UP and Be Counted, or line up and be numbered - *DTOM* -w- NO Pity for the LAZY - Luke, 22:36)
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To: Smittie

It is. We did not lose a Thunderbird and a Blue Angel to engine failure by coincidence and a great young man piloting one of the airplanes.

The stuff we have is worn out.


15 posted on 06/10/2016 10:37:33 PM PDT by Sequoyah101 (It feels like we have exchanged our dreams for survival. We just have a few days that don't suck.)
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To: Tilted Irish Kilt
Then bring back the 'Warthog' , for close in , ground support !

Yepper - was stationed at Myrtle Beach when they replaced the A-7's (jet-propelled cinder blocks) with the A-10s and I fell in love.....

16 posted on 06/11/2016 3:35:16 AM PDT by trebb (Where in the the hell has my country gone?)
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To: Smittie

This impostor needs to be jailed


17 posted on 06/11/2016 4:26:27 AM PDT by ronnie raygun
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To: Smittie

One reason US mil equipment is worn out is the lack of funding to replace worn parts necessitating cannibalization of other similar machines, another reason is that anything new must be a) shinny; b) extremely expensive leading to; c) limited quantities due to the expense; d) be on the cutting edged of tech for Brass bragging rights and; e) war fighting and survivability are optional.


18 posted on 06/11/2016 4:40:11 AM PDT by PIF (They came for me and mine ... now it is your turn ...)
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To: Windflier

Dear Windflier,

I was an active USAF member under Jimmah Cah-tuh, so yes, the degradation did start, there. It did have a ‘trans-fault-line-stictching-stop’ with Reagan, and then, again, the degradation began, and continues till today.

I do NOT exclude the sitting POS-Prez, and he is complicit.

As to the Gonzales flag ... I;m going full DTOM/LFOD Jolly Roger, courtesy of the nice ‘culpepper folks’.


19 posted on 06/13/2016 7:49:22 AM PDT by Terry L Smith
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