Cost Of Buying, Flying Military's New Jet Fighter To Reach $1 Trillion, Audit Says

[Purveyor]

Source: Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The cost of buying and operating a new fleet of jet fighters for the U.S. military is nearing $1 trillion, according to a congressional audit that found the program dogged by delays, manufacturing inefficiencies and price increases.

Released Tuesday, the report from the Government Accountability Office offers a sobering assessment of the ambitious effort to deliver a modern series of aircraft known as the F-35 Lightning II to the Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps.

Tasked by Congress to conduct an annual assessment of the program, the GAO said costs have gone up by $23 billion since last year alone.

Close to $300 billion is needed to acquire 2,458 aircraft for the three services and another $650 billion will be needed to operate and maintain the fighters that are expected to be flying well into the 21st century, the report says.



Read more: http://www.startribune.com/nation/16561496.html

[Kolesar]

1. To replace the Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt 2 that cost $700,000 each

...back in the 1970s. Bring back the Warthog!

[jody]

2. I also love the A-10 but the F-35 is for a different missions. The A-10 is being upgraded. n/t

[AdHocSolver]

31. Naw! The A-10 is discontinued because it didn't generate enough profits for the military/industrial-

complex.

[jody]

37. Perhaps but several hundred A-10s are being upgraded. n/t

[Bigmack]

3. Can't afford it...

All those nice new shiny toys the military wants? Can't afford them.

Those (at least) 750 military bases overseas? Can't afford them.

Those maimed veterans? Can't afford them.

When are the people going to recognize that the military is spending the US to death?

[Owl]

6. I agree. No matter how "wonderful", as a society

we can't afford this crap anymore.

All of it is a waste.

[Sweet Pea]

14. 750?

Where did you get that number?

[Bigmack]

21. Lots of places....

http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0115-08.htm for one. Chalmers Johnson's books on the US empire are good, too, but this DU post has the hot URL's

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x1341066

Thank You, NobleCynic...

"You can look through this yourself if you want, but according to Department of Defense (which means it does not account for secret installations) we operate 860 military bases in foreign countries as of 2004, and 3842 within our own borders, 4702 total. (The summaries are on pg 12 of the 2004 report.)

I'd use the 2005 numbers (2639 domestic and 737 foreign, 3376 total), but I personally doubt that the military has closed 1326 bases since then especially given their budget has been increasing not decreasing. I think the military made an accounting change reclassifying what counts as secret or that they made a change regarding what is classified as a military installation.

In any case these numbers are the absolute minimum. And you wondered how the military can spend all that money?"

For the 2004 DoD report:
<http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/20040910_2004BaseStruct... >
For the 2005 DoD report:
<http://stinet.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA435933&Lo... >

[jody]

4. Cost covers 24 years for USAF, Navy, Marines and given the development risk is IMO reasonable. n/t

[Nostradammit]

7. I'll tell the veterans under the bridge here that you approve n/t

[jody]

8. Thanks, always glad to help spreading the truth. n/t

[Bigmack]

22. I hate these snarkfests....

.. but your post seems to imply that a trillion buck is justified when the US has a stupendous deficit... one that doesn't even take into account the costs of the Iraq clusterfuck. The dollar is in the dumper already, and the economy doesn't look all that healthy. Cost of the damn plane has gone up $23 billion in the last year.... wait until about 5 years from now. Grab your ankles and hold on tight!

A trillion bucks for a weapon that the US has no demonstrable use? How about those gazillion-dollar Trident subs? What possible opponent does a first-strike tactical nuclear weapon platform have in an age of stateless terrorism?

I want one of those giant TV's and a yacht and .... I simply can't afford it.

Time for the US to get in touch with reality.

[AdHocSolver]

32. The B-1 bomber was a total flop -- They kept crashing. We are still building and paying for them.

The air force tried to cancel the contract, but Congress shelled out our tax dollars to buy more of them, even though they are useless.

The B-2 stealth bomber had to be flown from the U.S. to Iraq because the surface that gives it its stealth quality is too fragile to be left out in the elements. It has to be stored in special hangars.

They aren't even building the F-35 yet and already there are billions of dollars in cost overruns.

It is obvious that these military contracts are all about making profit for the military/industrial corporations.

[Selatius]

5. This is how the US becomes a bankrupt ex-superpower like Russia. It spends its economy to death. n/t

[Plucketeer]

10. I agree with you there!

This military spending (If some Johnnie-whizbang thing can be dreampt up, the US Military's GOTTA have it!!!) is absolutely OUT OF CONTROL!!! Ol' IKE was SUCH a visionary! We're spending ourselves into a meltdown and BORROWING to perpetuate the occupation in Iraq! (OH - and NOW we're gonna do Iran!) I don't believe in a "god", but I'll say "God help us" anyway. :banghead:

[BearSquirrel2]

43. Just remember all these toys are for ???

Just remember that all these toys are presumably for fighting guys wearing sandals wielding C-4 with garage door openers for detonators.

[AdHocSolver]

33. Also, the collapse of the Roman Empire, Spanish Empire, Dutch Empire, Portuguese Empire...

You can read about all of the empires that collapsed by building armies and navies and waging constant warfare that bankrupted them in Kevin Phillips' book "Wealth and Democracy".

The rulers built the empires by conquering and colonizing weaker countries for profit by taxing their middle classes into oblivion. These rulers alienated their subjects and pillaged and brutalized the countries they conquered. The greed and corruption weakened these empires and they were militarily crushed or simply collapsed economically.

Kevin Phillips is a conservative Republican who served as Nixon's economics advisor. He also wrote another book that is a scathing critique of the Bush regime.

[lovuian]

9. this is unsustainable

pure and simple

[creeksneakers2]

11. What do they need 2,500 jets for?

Nobody is going to militarily attack us. No country has anything like the desire or means to do it. The only threat we face is terrorism, which jets can't do a thing about.

They say we won't have money for Medicare or Social Security but we'll have enough to play world policeman super power for the next century. The military industrial complex will see to that.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

13. a-hem

russia
china
iran
iraq
syria
yemen
pakistan
uzbekistan
turkistan
korea (n)
korea (s)
belgium
canada
venezuela
bolivia
mexico
sudan
nigeria
niger

[creeksneakers2]

25. Which one of those is going to militarily attack us?

Sudan? Why are Canada and Russia both on your list? I don't understand what its a list of.

[daleo]

27. I think it must be irony.

Niger, Bolivia, Belgium?

[Lorien]

34. and Canada

:wtf:

The US ALREADY spends more on this military then the next ten most powerful nations COMBINED.

[Selatius]

35. Well, we're spending to defend against an even greater threat: Alien Invasion.

Haven't you been watching flicks like War of the Worlds or Independence Day? Obviously, we're not spending enough to match that kind of alien firepower. We need more advanced killing machines. :sarcasm:

[LanternWaste]

42. Yup-- gotta watch out for the up and coming neo-empire of Belgium

Yup-- gotta watch out for the up and coming neo-empire of Belgium. Those dirty bastards (who are almost as bad as the world power of Bolivia, also on your list) are salivating to bomb us into a dark age of chocolates and windmills.

And how about the insidious Venezuelans? Already doing their best to become energy independent-- how dare they!

Ok... that was :sarcasm: because for the life of me, I can't imagine why three quarters of the countries are on your list.. :shrug:

[Bilbo Heugan]

12. Take it out of the school lunch fund. nt

[Faygo Kid]

15. Eisenhower looks like a greater President all the time.

Ike could surely not be a Republican today, and whatever his faults, he warned us and was absolutely right about this crap.

I think we're doomed. I don't think any president can reverse the George W. Bush disaster. And he's not done yet.

[saigon68]

16. The Chimp is one INSANE bastard

[Thothmes]

39. Actually Ike

was pretty much a-political in the Army. Both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party tried to get Ike as their candidate for the 52 elections. The Republicans won.

[truthisfreedom]

17. Didn't ya know? A trillion is the new billion.

Not much, just a drop in the ol' bucket.

[truthisfreedom]

18. Dupe (augh!)

I HATE my new MacBook Air. Gahh!

[Canuckistanian]

19. I personally saw some of the $millions wasted on the F22A

The shoddy bidding practices, the overkill on useless details.... and the politics behind them.

Why doesn't the Pentagon insist on straight-forward business practices?

Never mind... I think I know the answers.

[Thothmes]

38. That is a questionn best posed to the Congress of the United States.

[unhappycamper]

20. FWIW

the cost of an F-35 Lightening is $239,000,000. And it doesn't fly above 40,00 feet (yet). It's all in the Veterans forum.

[hay rick]

23. 1 trillion $ compared to

all federal spending. The federal government currently spends about $3 trillion per year on everything- defense, civilian expenditures, social security- everything.

We currently spend approximately as much on our military as all other countries combined spend on theirs. Defense is a misnomer for our spending. This is clearly an expeditionary force.

We will rapidly arrive at a point where maintaining this kind of military expenditure will require cuts in Social Security, federal pensions, Medicare, and/or Medicaid OR significant tax increases. Building up a military which we can not sustain in the future is a fool's errand.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

24. Let me guess:

This is supposed to prevent another 9/11 :sarcasm:

Who is going to speak THE TRUTH to the American people, that they're the financial victims of a fifty-year con job that has given us a bigger pile of military toys than the rest of the world COMBINED and that the greedheads want even more toys, most of which are for "enemies" who don't exist. :grr:

[BearSquirrel2]

44. Only if ...

Only if the Air National Guard commander didn't intentionally cripple his own fleet and forbade an interception without the direct permission of a president sequestered in a 2nd grade classroom.

[daleo]

26. A trillion dollars for fighter jets

And the enemy uses hijacked passenger planes and RPGs.

[Selatius]

36. In Viêt Nam we were using million-dollar B-52s to bomb folks with bicycles on the Ho Chi Minh Trail

The bicycles had bamboo sticks strapped to them so that you can balance several hundred pounds worth of goods and ammunition on a bike. It was cheap, easily manufactured, and it worked. No amount of carpet bombing could stop that kind of weapon used by people with that kind of willpower to evict foreigners off their land.

[BearSquirrel2]

45. The true origin of Mountain Bikes!!!

Our national priorities are all wrong. We should be buying are military supplies from Trek, Specialized and Raleigh!!!

[spag68]

28. wait for the real cost

Meanwhile I saw on Capital News that Iraq has a 60B budget surplus. go figure

[shanti]

29. spending money like water

:mad:

[ryanmuegge]

30. Forget paying for it. What are we going to fuel this thing with?

Obviously they're preparing for a resource war with China.

[Javaman]

40. Going to be a lot more than that...

considering that the airforse is the largest user of fossil fuels out of all the branches.

[hunter]

41. Campaign Finance in the United States...

Our Defense Department is simply a very inefficient money laundering machine:

Taxpayer $$$ + Government Borrowing --> Campaign $$$ + Bribes + CEO Bonuses + :party:

The hardware is all incidental to that.