Posted on 03/03/2010 9:14:26 PM PST by ErnstStavroBlofeld
The Lockheed Martin F-22 production line is dead, dead, dead. The US Air Force won't buy any more and foreign customers can't by any more. The age of Raptor production is over; long live the Lightning II.
Or, is it?
Rand's Project Air Force today published a 120-page monograph titled: Ending F-22A Production: Costs and Industrial Base Implications of Alternative Options.
Hold on. What "alternative options"? Didn't we already decide the F-22 is dead -- no ifs, ands or earmarks?
Rand's analysts explain in their report that the study was commissioned by the US Air Force before the decision was made to terminate production.
Some might wonder why Rand didn't think to simply cancel the study after Congress approved the termination order, but let's leave that aside for now.
Rand's analysis calculates the costs of restarting production after a two-year hiatus, producing 75 "zombie" F-22s (zombie=back from the dead) between 2012 and 2016. The study concludes that the average unit cost for the 75 F-22s is $227 million, including re-start costs. The average flyaway unit cost, which exclude re-start costs, is $179 million.
(Excerpt) Read more at flightglobal.com ...
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The RAND Corporation is not to be trusted.
Rand are a corrupt and devious as the UN, Chicago or General Electric.
A lot of good nuclear war thinkers came out of RAND. One that comes to mind is Dr. Hermann Kahn.He developed the U.S.nuclear war theories and the best military strategist.
I don’t think they’ve producced all the F-22s that have been ordered yet. They were still getting a total of 173 of them.
I think that you are correct.
Did you see their report on how to set up a national police force? Very eerie
Ping.
“The RAND Corporation is not to be trusted.”
Rand is for all purposes a government agency.
I did a number of construction jobs years ago and every one of my men was issued a military guard, even if he had to go to the bathroom.
Every door was a double door with an armed military guard between doors.
I’ve had contracts in a lot of top security facilities but none was as tight as Rand.
They are a think tank. A think tank is a group or an institution organized for intensive research and solving of problems, especially in the areas of technology, social or political strategy, or armament. They are getting paid for this.
Of course its that tight. They are protecting the worlds greatest minds,especially in military matters.
Slow the production line down to trickle out the last of the orders. When the rats lose Congress next year, I’ll bet you a bag of donuts that the next budget defense bill out of Congress will have funding for more F-22s.
Thanks!
A “think tank” is rarely ‘neutral’ or political agenda free. Most “think tanks” are politically oriented, whether progressive, conservative, etc. RAND is no different.
But if you work for RAND you are among the elite.
Dr. Hermann Kahn left RAND and formed the Hudson Institute with is another “elite” think tank.
Hmm, well, I am not sure I fully agree with the “elitist” bit being I do know a handful of anti- and counter-terrorism academics and experts that do work at varying think tanks and surprisingly, are not or do not act like elitists. Hell, Steve Emerson, who some claim is an elitist, actually called me to discuss some aspects of my doctoral thesis.
Anyhow, in large part, they are elitist type institutions; again, RAND is not excluded. That having been said, RAND does put out some exceptional and well researched pieces on terrorism, stuff which I am mainly interested in. Even so, RAND does have a political leaning but many there do try to do objective research and analysis, IMHO.
They have a political leaning, but they have been around for a while and many U.S. Presidents and politicians have listened to their advice for many decades.
Oh, I agree, sonofstrangelove.
I merely tried to point out that no one “think tank” is or should be exempted from being classed as political tainted or having a political leaning. The difference is that a few try their best to not have that political or ideological taint infiltrate their research on a consistent basis. RAND is not perfect but they are fairly objective from my perspective, especially in the research fields I have interest(s) in. I cannot even begin to count and list the sheer number of RAND .pdfs I have on my computer that I have used for many of my academic research works in terrorism. :)
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