I think this is a first for S/N: An audio presentation as a story.
The other day I heard Pierre Sprey, the primary designer of the F-16 and A-10, talking to journalist Ian Masters about the F-35 attack jet. This guy is a fascinating speaker.
Topics: Politics and military procurement;
It's about 20 minutes in length, but if your media player has a speed control, you can listen to it in less time than that.
The high bitrate version at Ian's site is 19MB. Mr.Sprey is the 3rd of 3 guests.
The low bitrate webcast at KPFK's archive is 14MB for all 3 guests.
KPFK also has a stream.
The 3rd segment is from 36:30 to 55:00.
KPFK's stuff will be available until mid-October.
He goes into considerable detail on stealth, noting that it is a complete boondoggle:
He goes into some detail as to why stealth costs so much:
In his closing comments he says:
Until you can arrange a system by which congressmen who give away the taxpayers' money to defense companies and generals who go to work for defense companies as soon as they retire--until you can stop that, you will be increasingly weak and undefended at higher and higher cost.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 19 2014, @05:46AM
Reminds me of the stories I used to hear on payouts on hitting a chicken, tree, etc in Germany a few decades back. Run over a chicken and the damage is figured at every egg it could have ever laid, every chicken that could have hatched from them,,,,.. Knock down a tree and it would be every board foot of it after full growth made into furniture if that was possible and you can guess at the possible math if it was a fruit or not tree. Was never there myself, so really don't know, but heard it could be quite interesting if you were a soldier there and did some damage off the base or for the US Government when military on maneuvers there.
For those kinds of conversations the turkey you would want around would probably be Wild Turkey Bourbon. Not that I have tasted any in decades, but this conversation somehow giving me a craving for it.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 21 2014, @07:55AM
So, RIAA style damages... Not just paying for replacing what you destroyed/"stole", but for what income could theoretically have been gained if the item was ever sold. Even though a replacement could be sold at the same price.
Though, for a tree, growing a replacement is going to take years (and we don't usually re-plant fully grown trees).