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unhappycamper

(60,364 posts)
Sat Jan 24, 2015, 06:43 AM Jan 2015

This Chart Shows The Staggering Hourly Cost Of Operating US Military Aircraft

http://www.businessinsider.com/chart-shows-hourly-cost-of-military-aircraft-2014-12

This Chart Shows The Staggering Hourly Cost Of Operating US Military Aircraft
Jeremy Bender
Dec. 30, 2014, 1:56 PM

The US military is set replace many of its aircraft with planes that cost substantially more to operate by the hour.

James Fallows, a national correspondent for The Atlantic, noted in a recent cover story for the magazine that costly military projects of questionable worth are becoming increasingly spread throughout congressional districts across the country. This means that projects such as the astronomically expensive F-35 become too politically sensitive to ever cancel, even if the planes themselves aren't cost-effective once they make it to the air.

The following graphic, courtesy of The Atlantic, highlights the disparity in flight hour costs for various aircraft in the US fleet.




--

unhappycamper notes: The cost of these aircraft are contested also.

Time.com sez:

The B-2 costs $2.4 billion dollars a copy, not $810 million dollars a copy.

The F-22 is shown at a laughingly low $144 million dollars a copy, rather than the $418 million dollars they cost.

9 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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This Chart Shows The Staggering Hourly Cost Of Operating US Military Aircraft (Original Post) unhappycamper Jan 2015 OP
K&R F4lconF16 Jan 2015 #1
I looked over a B2 one day at Boeing Field easychoice Jan 2015 #2
If we can't afford to educate our children, to heal our sick or care for our elderly ... Scuba Jan 2015 #3
But they are protecting your freedumbs! Enthusiast Jan 2015 #4
Nah, it's corporate profits. The question is rhetorical. Scuba Jan 2015 #5
What do you call a 50% cut in military spending? bulloney Jan 2015 #6
The Impossible Dream merrily Jan 2015 #8
Nothing is too expensive or too wasteful for our Dept of (snort) "Defense." merrily Jan 2015 #7
Oh NO! You mentioned military and "spending" in the same sentence, are you a traitor? Fred Sanders Jan 2015 #9

F4lconF16

(3,747 posts)
1. K&R
Sat Jan 24, 2015, 06:51 AM
Jan 2015

To think I wanted to spend my life designing those aircraft and feeding off this system makes me want to

easychoice

(1,043 posts)
2. I looked over a B2 one day at Boeing Field
Sat Jan 24, 2015, 07:04 AM
Jan 2015

As I recall the price to the taxpayers at the time was $4400.00 a pound.Hold a pound of rivets in your hand and imagine spending that much money on them.No wonder we have no money to help the people who need us.

 

Scuba

(53,475 posts)
3. If we can't afford to educate our children, to heal our sick or care for our elderly ...
Sat Jan 24, 2015, 07:16 AM
Jan 2015

... just what is it the defense budget is defending?

Fred Sanders

(23,946 posts)
9. Oh NO! You mentioned military and "spending" in the same sentence, are you a traitor?
Sat Jan 24, 2015, 09:23 AM
Jan 2015

Nothing spells "hypocrisy" more than military spending, so of course no one must talk about it, kind of like the humans rights record of good buddy Saudi Arabia, the world leader in flogging free speech.

America has many such sacred cows, speech is not free if no one is listening.

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