That was my point. These current helicopters are much newer than any model of Boeing B-52. I’d watch already old B-52s head to Vietnam from various Air Force bases where we would shop for groceries (my late father was a retired Marine) as a child. I’m now 54 years old.
I understood the point, just answering the question.
There may or may not be a need to replace Marine One helicopters by 2022, when the current ones will be 35 years old. The problem seems to be the government’s inability to properly balance risk, cost and mission in procurement. Therefore it drives the costs to the point where things become unaffordable. This is the case with military hardware as well as social programs (i.e. ACA).
In a business management determines the target cost per unit and cost drives the design. Someone in the organization prioritizes the features and the project manager is charged with getting as many features included as possible for the target budget. It seems the government determines what it wants and then lets the cost be what it is going to be. We cannot afford to continue designing programs this way, whether they be military hardware or social programs but no one in Congress, the bureaucracy, or the executive branch will do their jobs and bring reality into the spending equation.