Overall fleet-wide monthly availability rates remain around 50 percent, a condition that has existed with no significant improvement since October 2014, despite the increasing number of new aircraft. One notable trend is an increase in the percentage of the fleet that cannot fly while awaiting replacement parts – indicated by the Not Mission Capable due to Supply rate.
[...] Total acquisition costs for Lockheed Martin Corp.'s next-generation fighter may rise about 7 percent to $406.5 billion, according to figures in a document known as a Selected Acquisition Report. That's a reversal after several years of estimates that had declined to $379 billion recently from a previous high of $398.5 billion in early 2014.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday January 30 2018, @04:04AM
You seem totally ignorant of the benefit of having safe shipping lanes and countries that don't have to worry about being invaded or having their territories with natural resources stolen.
The United States performs this vital world peace keeping service which is one reason they spend more than other countries that just free ride on the US's services.
Absent order, other countries would have to build up their militaries and more wars would break out. Police perform a critical service everyone (except crooks maybe) benefits from, and the US is the world's police. Better us than the Chinese.