Posted on 03/16/2009 10:15:25 PM PDT by utahson
Two defense officials who were not authorized to speak publicly said Gates will announce up to a half-dozen major weapons cancellations later this month. Candidates include a new Navy destroyer, the Air Force's F-22 fighter jet, and Army ground-combat vehicles, the offi cials said.
More cuts are planned for later this year after a review that could lead to reductions in programs such as aircraft carriers and nuclear arms, the officials said.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
We’re doubly screwed now.
Unfortunately, a part of me expects a catastrophic attack on New York, sooner than we think. Some experts have said a nuclear detonation in Manhattan is “more likely than not” in the next five years or so.
I pray to God that these people are wrong!
I believe that it is only through superior training that our pilots do as well as they do. The Air Force has to be the absolute worst about wanting and getting the latest sexy new fighter jet, even if the cost is 10 times higher than the previous aircraft.
Passive radar technology is rapidly developing where large arrays of antennas “look” at the pattern of radio waves generated from commercial radio, television, cell towers, and weather and navigation radar and detect “holes” in the pattern. The “hole” is an aircraft and even stealth aircraft leave “holes” in the pattern.
I have a theory about the shoot down of the F-117 in Yugoslavia in 1999, and I believe it to be pretty close to the truth.
In that time, the Chinese were developing passive radar technology and wanted to see how it would do in actual combat. So the “loaned” it to the Serbs who then used it so shoot the F-117 down.
If you remember, just a few days later, one of our pilots “accidentally” dropped a bomb and hit the Chinese embassy. The official explanation was that our pilot was told that it was an empty lot with trucks parked on it and that our maps were “out of date”.
Come on! Do they REALLY think that we believe that we drop bombs on targets based on 5 year old intel? No, the message was a clear warning to the Chinese not to interfere. People think that Clinton was a coward and wouldn’t have the nerve to do it, but I disagree.
The next war won’t be won by stealth, it will be won by conventional aircraft that come in after the enemy has used up all their missiles chasing drones or ghost images generated by ECM aircraft. And don’t get me started about how bad an idea it is to use the F-18 as the platform to replace the EA-6B.
The V-22 is proof positive of the power of the military industrial complex. It has no place, yet it limps, deadly, on. Sick.
And if you think everything is going UAV, than you have a basic misunderstanding of what a DOGFIGHT in the near future entails.
Obama will have us LOSE a war before he is through. :(
I fear for my country. God help us.
Not to worry. The money saved will be transferred to spitball research.
I have a 7.62mm translation service.
Yeah I saw those movies. The future of the human race was great in the Terminator series, huh? I just read an article that we are at the cusp of having machines become self aware and sentient. How do you think they'll feel about being slaves to humanity?
Take humans out of the war equation? One of the final questions of his life answered by none other than General George S. Patton: No soldiers? No generals? No glory in victory? Thank God I won't live to see it! He didn't either.
Take human pilots out of the cockpit? So your average 12 year old with a PSII can fight our wars on the internet?
Did you serve?
If our country was a household, Obama just cancelled our Brinks subscription to pay for HBO.
Simple Question, How many Marines have died in Iraq and Afghanistan in CH46 crashes vs MV22 crashes?
For the record book the CH46 is NATOPS restricted in the maneuvers it can do as well and has been throughout the majority of it’s service life based upon losses incurred during the first five years of it’s service.
It seems the budget hawks here go after the wrong programs. In reality you can’t really defend this nation on the cheap..
I wonder what the current exchange rate for the Ruble is? Might be beneficial. Our money ain't worth squat thanks to the Obamanation.
Good... The military complex needs a haircut. Yes. We need to fight on against Islamofascism. But at the same time, military spending out of control.
I don’t have a problem with cuts in some military procurement. I’m sure there are programs out there that are useless. I’m guessing the F-35 is too far along to be cut and to me it looks like a great jet that will in the long run save the military money. The F-35 STOVAL will probably be a great replacement jet for the Marine Corps and do away with both the harrier and the F-18. This will mean that all military fighter jets will be stealth.
They better not cut the program to replace the HUMVEE. I believe it’s called something like JLTV. I read about it a number of months back. It’s in the beginning stages and is essentially the HUMVEE with protection for IEDs which is greatly needed.
Of course they love the F-22, they’re fighter pilots; the ones who tried their best to get rid of the A-10 for instance. The fighter jocks are no different in attitude than the 1990s generals with 1940s brains who pushed the B2 over improving the B1 platform. The B1 was a more versatile platform than the B2 which was built for strategic bombing only and a truly fragile platform all things considered. Even some of the people I knew working on the project at the time were hesitant to say that it was the right project for the time. UAVs can perform a lot of combat tasks in conjunction with fighters, tank killers and the other assets we have to maintain air-ground superiority.
Good point. It's sad that he is not the only one to complain about the so-called out of control military spending. There are several other NEO-Freepers on this thread doing the same thing. This is exactly what Obama wants people to think, which will only make it easier for him to gut our military. This comes right out of the communist playbook.
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