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The US military's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter aircraft is proving to be a pain in the neck in more ways than one. Not only did the Pentagon spend almost $400 billion to buy 2,400 aircraft - about twice as much as it cost to put a man on the moon - the F-35 program is 7 years behind schedule and $163 billion over budget. This at a time when cuts in the defense budget are forcing the Pentagon to shrink the size of the military. CBS 60 Minutes took a closer look at the troubled fighter plane a few months back, but their rebroadcast on Sunday evening seems like as good a reason as any to revisit one of the biggest ongoing budget debacles in U.S. military memory. David Martin gets an inside look at what makes the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter the most expensive weapons system in history.
(Score: 1) by deimtee on Tuesday June 03 2014, @02:30AM
Depends on how you define an unmanned arial vehicle. Surface to Air missiles have taken down plenty of manned planes.
If you mean machine-gun equipped drones dog-fighting WW1 style, then yeah it isn't going to happen. Cool as it would be, it just wouldn't be as cost effective or efficient as missiles.
If you cough while drinking cheap red wine it really cleans out your sinuses.
(Score: 2) by tibman on Tuesday June 03 2014, @01:35PM
hah, great point! I am also sure that missiles will continue to remain unmanned.
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