How To Waste A Trillion Dollars On Defense

Deficit, meh.  $17 trillion full steam ahead.

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Pentagon To Debut Most Expensive Weapons Program Ever In New Superman Film

Wired

Offscreen, the F-35 is in about as much trouble as a superhero in the third act of an action movie.  The advanced stealth fighter — intended to be the backbone of the Air Force, Navy and Marines’ future combat air fleets — is estimated to cost as much as $1.5 trillion over its half-century lifespan. It’s several years late and several hundred million dollars over budget. Its software is complicated, its engineering flaws are numerous, and the Pentagon no longer predicts when it will enter service.

The Navy appears to be hedging its bets against the program ultimately collapsing under the weight of its costs — and inside the Pentagon, there’s concern over whether the F-35 remains, as Sen. Claire McCaskill once called it, “too big to fail.”

So it’s understandable that the Pentagon would consider a Superman movie to be the right cinematic vehicle for the F-35′s introduction to the culture. (Well, except for the web videos.) Although the way Strub tells it, the arrival of the F-35 in Man of Steel was little more than a happy accident for the Pentagon. There is no footage as of yet of the planes in flight, just shots of it on the ground at Edwards. And it appears not to have a role in helping vanquish Kryptonian villain General Zod, the film’s antagonist.

Continue reading at Wired...

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Related:

The F-35: A Weapon That Costs More Than Australia

Government Sees Lifetime Cost Of F-35 fighter At $1.51 Trillion - Reuters

Obama Would Spend $6 Trillion On Military, Romney $8 Trillion

Comments

[john]

It's one big party in Washington...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo9bKdIG_Yw

[DailyBail]

"Pass the roast beefs and pour the wine..."

[john]

"And I'll kiss yours, if you'll kiss mine"

[F4PhantomGib]

We've been down this road before. It was called the F-111. That didn't work then and I don't think this will work.

[Howard T. Lewis III]

Jack the Ripper only needed a kitchen knife. Whoever designed this overpriced monstrosity is obsessive compulsive about killing people without cause. It is just more deadly junk designed to give the Bush cabal orcashims.

[Lawrence]

The S300 and S400 defensive batteries will still shoot it down ... just providing a more expensive target.

[SKINFLINT]

Can anyone please explain to me how the heck a group of militants in Syria, who by all accounts can't even get along with one another, and who have reportedly small arms, can blow to smithereens fighter jets from the sky? Just a rhetorical question, I know. NPR reported last night that no one can understand how these militants acquired the gear for this type of operation, but alas.

[Norman]

Now now, let us not pick on the poor Lockheed corporation, they need welfare too, especially considering that the Drone boys are becoming the new hot shot rulers of the sky's. Say, maybe those planes can be fitted with a joy stick control, just like the X-Box games, and humans can sit in an air conditioned cubicle someplace and war game.