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posted by janrinok on Monday June 02 2014, @11:36AM   Printer-friendly
from the buddy-can-you-spare-me-a-dime? dept.

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.

 
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  • (Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday June 03 2014, @03:36PM

    by mcgrew (701) <publish@mcgrewbooks.com> on Tuesday June 03 2014, @03:36PM (#50660) Homepage Journal

    You're talking about the US military, with bombs that cost millions apiece. A million bucks for one bomb! No equipment is too valuable for the US military to risk.

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  • (Score: 2) by nitehawk214 on Wednesday June 04 2014, @03:10PM

    by nitehawk214 (1304) on Wednesday June 04 2014, @03:10PM (#51124)

    The problem is the newer, expensive, high tech equipment actually performs worse in situations where you are going to get hit occasionally. Close air support with random AA guns firing up at you. The guns are already firing blind most of the time, so stealth doesn't help as much. Better to send an big ugly flying tank like the A-10. They keep flying when the do get hit because there is no sensitive electronics to harm.

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    "Don't you ever miss the days when you used to be nostalgic?" -Loiosh