Posted on 12/23/2016 5:32:33 AM PST by RoosterRedux
While we have a lot of sunk research costs in the F-35 that are unrecoverable, the question is how to allocate our money today, and the F-35 would be a waste at current prices.
If Trump cannot negotiate a more reasonable price per plane, we should take that money and use it for what the military really needs. First and foremost, we need more soldiers in all branches of the military. Obama has shrunk the armed forces down to unconscionable levels.
Secondly, we need more drones – a lot of them. Just think: if one F-35 crashes, we have lost nearly $200 million. If a Reaper drone crashes, we lose only $15 million. Drones are much better suited for the kind of wait-hunt-chase warfare we are in now than fighter jets.
We need naval drones as well. The image of our giant aircraft carriers threatened by tiny Iranian speedboats with missiles is ridiculous. Our Navy needs a smaller footprint with bigger payloads. We need more drones and more submarines armed with cruise missiles.
Finally, bring back the A-10s. They were very low-tech, but they were great planes, low-flying, full of destructive power, and armored so they were hard to bring down. Sometimes older, proven technology doesn't necessarily make for a bad choice. Low tech paired with low prices means you can buy in higher volume.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
Even the M-16, which has been in service for 50 years or so, longer than any other U.S. military rifle.
The F-22 is superior to any competitor in the air or in pre-production. However, the only way resuming F-22 production makes sense is to allow its export. The initial reason for not doing so may have made sense at the time, but the stealth cat is now out of the bag so technology transfer is no longer an issue.
Genius - I consider Trumps response about the F35 and F18 Super Hornet the same thing we do at the car dealer. Did not like how things were going at the Porsche dealer, so we tell the guy we are going to take a walk over to Audi and see what they say. Classic negotiation, always keep at least 2 things on the table. The Govt has never worked like this, winning
Don’t get me started on the DDG 1000 program! LCS stands for “little crappy ship”. The USS ZUMWALT doesn’t have a functioning weapon system, and won’t for at least a couple of years, if then. The JUWL weapons system is way behind schedule and way over budget. Our tax dollars would be much better spent upgrading the DDG’s currently in the fleet.
Let us not forget the venerable M-14 which was brought back into service for Afghanistan, and is used as a designated marksman rifle at platoon level.
It seems that the M-4 and the M-16 didn’t have the range needed, and even if the troop could hit a target with the M-16, he couldn’t be sure of a kill at that range.
Don’t badmouth the Beretta, it makes a great club.
The F-22: They could but it would not be fun. There were several articles which appeared here and elsewhere on the subject.
While the tooling and dies are thought to still exist and all the steps necessary to make another assembly line were videotaped, the skills needed to make it happen are found only with people now in retirement homes at best.
You would have to retrain an entire workforce. The result would take many years and be very expensive, let alone the costs of producing an actual plane.
China’s J-20 (the supposed F-22 clone) would be an operational antique by then.
Who knows about the A-10.
Maybe we need an updated version of this plane, from the ground up?
Keep the M-16 for cooks and clerks and the Air Force, but give the war fighters, Marines and Infantry, a real military rifle.
I doubt it will ever be a real functional ship. Look at the design, no room for more than 1 Chopper, and a few gun turrets, rest is below deck. Ammo is still to expensive. A complete FUBAR. That is Hubby’s term for the Zimwalt. We are on the same page on these FUBARS.
Destroyers, subs and Carriers are still what the Navy needs. And some smaller heavily armed patrol escort mid sized ships.
Another place to save money is in forcing bases not to remodel or install crap not needed. And use Military as base Security instead of Rent a Cops. Kick the brass out of housing, let the married lower enlisted have it, Brass can afford rentals or buying a house.
When they needlessly remolded our Exchange, that just needed a roof replacement, they made it less user friendly, and did NOT remodel the Pharmacy for handicapped use. It is still Active Duty friendly. When the DOD MANDATED in 2014 made permanent in 2015 all Tricare Life use the Base Pharmacy for daily meds it created a handicapped issue that has not been addressed. The pharmacy is not large enough for wheel chairs or electric wheel chairs, even people on walkers have a hard time using the facility. We are NOT A PENSACOLA sized base. BUPERS, paper pushers, inland. We went from a Training base to BUPERS, lost the medical and hospital, airport sold to the city, but retains the right of use. We did gain a ton of high level Brass, where before we had 2 high level ones.
I’m the wife of a 20 yr career Ret. SCPO who is now 76, Express Scripts is NOT to be trusted. Fraud, no ID Sign for for meds, we get our neighbors as Post Office seems to have a reading addresses issue. Never let them auto withdraw from your bank, credit or debit cards. Write a check. Then you have the issue of Doctors not understanding how to write for Military Formulary or DOD Regs.
The SR-71 was 1950’s technology. Itso mission was mostly replaced by satellites and U2/TR1. Additionally, most modern aircraft are equipped with IRAN for after action reports, not to mention drones for real time recon.
The SR-71 was 1950’s technology. Itso mission was mostly replaced by satellites and U2/TR1. Additionally, most modern aircraft are equipped with IRAN for after action reports, not to mention drones for real time recon.
I might even argue that the Marines don’t need a replacement for the Harrier, and might go even further and state that the Marines don’t even need their own aircraft. They’re part of the Navy, let the Navy take care of the flying.
Not sure why that posted twice. “IRAN” should read “IR”.
>>The SR-71 was 1950’s technology.<<
Yet, never bested. Those were the heady days when we could actually DO STUFF.
Now it takes 20 years to get a small fundamental incremental improvement.
Trump was being interviewed by hannity earlier this year and was concerned about the reports that said the pilots said it didn’t handle as well as other fighter jets
I know the V-22 is carrier capable and it has VTOL/VSTOL capabilities, not sure if it could provide rapid close air support like the Harrier. They may be able to make it a mini AC-130. The problem is the Marines and other NATO nations use ships specifically designed for “jump jets” .
The Marines operate ground assault ships that have a mix of aircraft and ground assault watercraft. These ships were designed to be equipped with VSTOL aircraft.
The F22 would need a new avionics package that would give it networking ability like the F35.
The F-35’s “god’s eye” has made everything without it obsolete.
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