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Jets Shredded, Kept Away From 'Bad Guys'
Comcast News ^ | 7/2/2007 | SHARON THEIMER

Posted on 07/02/2007 8:04:58 AM PDT by HEY4QDEMS

WASHINGTON - A mechanical monster grabs the F-14 fighter jet and chews through one wing and then another, ripping off the Tomcat's appendages before moving onto its guts. Finally, all that's left is a pile of shredded rubble _ like the scraps from a Thanksgiving turkey.

The Pentagon is paying a contractor at least $900,000 to destroy old F-14s, a jet affectionately nicknamed "the turkey," rather than sell the spares at the risk of their falling into the wrong hands, including Iran's.

Within a workday, a $38 million fighter jet that once soared as a showpiece of U.S. airpower can be destroyed at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Ariz., the military's "boneyard" for retired aircraft.

"There were things getting to the bad guys, so to speak," said Tim Shocklee, founder and executive vice president of TRI-Rinse Inc. in St. Louis. "And one of the ways to make sure that no one will ever use an F-14 again is to cut them into little 2-by-2-foot bits."

(Excerpt) Read more at comcast.net ...


TOPICS: Government; US: Arizona; Unclassified
KEYWORDS: aerospace; boneyard; f14; military
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"And one of the ways to make sure that no one will ever use an F-14 again is to cut them into little 2-by-2-foot bits."

Damn ouch!
1 posted on 07/02/2007 8:04:59 AM PDT by HEY4QDEMS
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To: HEY4QDEMS

That’s just wrong.


2 posted on 07/02/2007 8:06:00 AM PDT by B Knotts (Anybody but Giuliani!)
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To: HEY4QDEMS

That’s kinda like with So Damn Insane and the boys did to folks they didn’t like.


3 posted on 07/02/2007 8:07:00 AM PDT by Dick Bachert (Wor)
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To: HEY4QDEMS

and I thought there was no waste in the defense budget...


4 posted on 07/02/2007 8:07:01 AM PDT by WhiteGuy (GOP Congress - 16,000 earmarks costing US $50 billion in 2006 - PAUL2008)
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To: HEY4QDEMS

Is our government so damned far out of control that they can’t control sales of fighter planes to our enemies?

It doesn’t speak very well for our ability to keep key information away from the Russians or the Chinese, does it?


5 posted on 07/02/2007 8:08:54 AM PDT by Cicero (Marcus Tullius)
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To: HEY4QDEMS

“There were things getting to the bad guys, so to speak,”

Perhaps they can have an amnesty with a buyback program.


6 posted on 07/02/2007 8:09:01 AM PDT by DancesWithBolsheviks (Tagline currently under construction.)
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To: HEY4QDEMS
It's too bad to see an old warbird like that shredded, but I'd rather see the old planes scrapped and melted down than in the hands of bastards like Ahmadinejad.

The Tomcat was a great aircraft for air defense of naval task forces. While the new F-35 will also get a good aircraft, I doubt it will ever measure up to the Tomcat in raw performance or air to air combat abilities. Then again, I guess they figure it's going to be good enough to deal with chinese built knock offs of Russian planes so maybe it makes sense.
7 posted on 07/02/2007 8:09:29 AM PDT by JamesP81 (Socialism: a system based on how people should be. Capitalism: a system based on how they really are)
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To: HEY4QDEMS
The Pentagon is paying a contractor at least $900,000 to destroy old F-14s

Typical government efficiency.

Push them off an aircraft carrier over the Marianas Trench.

8 posted on 07/02/2007 8:09:34 AM PDT by dead (I've got my eye out for Mullah Omar.)
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To: Dick Bachert

Sounds like when GM picked up all the leased electric cars and demolished them instead of selling them to the lessees so that they wouldn’t be seen on the road anymore.


9 posted on 07/02/2007 8:12:00 AM PDT by herMANroberts
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To: HEY4QDEMS
>The Pentagon is paying a contractor at least $900,000 to destroy old F-14s...rather than sell the spares at the risk of their falling into the wrong hands

They're afraid these guys
will get hold of the old planes
and start busting myths...

10 posted on 07/02/2007 8:12:23 AM PDT by theFIRMbss
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To: HEY4QDEMS

How about cutting the bad guys “into little 2-by-2-foot bits”?


11 posted on 07/02/2007 8:12:34 AM PDT by theDentist (Qwerty ergo typo : I type, therefore I misspelll.)
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To: dead
Push them off an aircraft carrier over the Marianas Trench.

That is what I was thinking. That is a lot of cash to do a simple job.
12 posted on 07/02/2007 8:12:49 AM PDT by P-40 (Al Qaeda was working in Iraq. They were just undocumented.)
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To: JamesP81
While the new F-35 will also get a good aircraft, I doubt it will ever measure up to the Tomcat in raw performance or air to air combat abilities

Agreed, the Tomcat was the pride of Naval aviation.
13 posted on 07/02/2007 8:13:17 AM PDT by HEY4QDEMS (Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.)
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To: HEY4QDEMS

Years ago, I worked at Radio Shack. When we had to get rid of old unsold merchandise, we were instructed to smash it before putting it in the trash, to prevent some dumpster diver from “returning” it for a “refund.”


14 posted on 07/02/2007 8:14:20 AM PDT by Huntress (Once you start down the dark path, forever will it dominate your destiny, consume you it will. -Yoda)
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To: HEY4QDEMS

But I love the Tomcat. Is there any way to get a piece of it, like a flight stick or something?


15 posted on 07/02/2007 8:14:52 AM PDT by wastedyears (Cloture? Nuts.)
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To: theFIRMbss

I love that show.


16 posted on 07/02/2007 8:16:08 AM PDT by wastedyears (Cloture? Nuts.)
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To: Huntress

How do you return anything without a receipt?


17 posted on 07/02/2007 8:16:47 AM PDT by wastedyears (Cloture? Nuts.)
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To: HEY4QDEMS

What ever happened to stripping the hard points and mil-spec avionics, installing commercial avionics and reselling the planes to civilians? I know someone that has picked up a couple surplus fighters (and flies em too). I know he’ll be bummed when he finds out he can’t get an F-14.


18 posted on 07/02/2007 8:17:12 AM PDT by Domandred (Eagles soar, but weasels never get sucked into jet engines)
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To: HEY4QDEMS
Agreed, the Tomcat was the pride of Naval aviation.

Like any machine, though, it eventually wore out. From what I've heard, keeping them airworthy was getting increasingly difficult, and they haven't built them for a long time.

I still think the Navy would be well served by a long range air defense interceptor to replace it, though. China's air force has a multitude of long range bombers capable of carrying anti ship missiles much the way the Soviets did; a serious threat that the Tomcat was intended to counter. That threat isn't gone and the Navy still needs a defense against it.
19 posted on 07/02/2007 8:17:12 AM PDT by JamesP81 (Socialism: a system based on how people should be. Capitalism: a system based on how they really are)
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To: theDentist
How about cutting the bad guys “into little 2-by-2-foot bits”?

And then feed them to Pigs.
20 posted on 07/02/2007 8:17:27 AM PDT by HEY4QDEMS (Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.)
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