[xrp]

Whew, thankfully the pilot ejected safely.

...while a quarter billion taxpayer dollars goes up in flames.

Our military definitely needs less expensive warplanes.

[Tallguy]

Our military definitely needs less expensive warplanes.

The $250 million dollar price tag for this airplane includes a lot of project development costs which have already been sunk. The cost to replace the aircraft is far less. Still a lot of $$$, but less.

I think that pilotless aircraft are the wave of the future. But the pilots on this site will tell you that the air combat mission is probably the last task that drones will able to achieve.

[Mad Mammoth]

Our military definitely needs less expensive warplanes.

Don't buy into that crap. That scam was proposed by noneother than former Senator Gary 'Monkey Business' Hart, who urged that our armed forces should rely less on high technology, and simplify everything to the point where our pilots would be flying somewhat more modern versions of the F-86 and F-100 jet fighters.

Yes, the planes (and other military equipment) are expensive as Hell, but what price do we put on our armed forces who defend our freedom with those weapons, and at what point do we declare the cost of victory over our enemies to be prohibitive?

We're at war, damn the deficits, we need to be on a war-footing industrial production wise, and that is one of the few issues I have with our esteemed President.