Congress (again) buys Tanks nobody wants...

[kalm]

Here's another spendy program for the Army. These two should be up in the air soon looking down on all you EC(b) fellers.

Back in 2005, the Army planned to have Raytheon build 32 blimps at a cost of about $180 million each. But growing doubts and hemorrhaging costs, along with the destruction of one blimp in a collision, led the Pentagon to hit the brakes in 2012. There would be no more new blimps, just testing for the prototypes that had already been constructed.

That brings the price tag for the two remaining blimps to around $1.4 billion each, if development costs are counted. (Technically, there’s another duo mothballed in storage in the Utah desert, but there are no current plans to use them.) That’s serious money, even by federal government standards.

Raytheon trumpets the results of several successful tests of the system, including an August 2013 demonstration in which JLENS helped an F-15 knock a mock cruise missile out of the sky. But a blistering analysis from the Pentagon’s Operational Test & Evaluation office for fiscal year 2013 found that testing had been inadequate and that JLENS needed improvement in critical areas, including “non-cooperative target recognition, friendly aircraft identification capabilities, and target track consistency” – i.e. telling the difference between friends and enemies.

The testing report found JLENS failed to meet its goals for reliability, because of both software and hardware problems, that it was too dependent on good weather, and that it “did not demonstrate the ability to survive in its intended operational environment.”

Indeed, one blimp got totaled at its manufacturing and test facility in North Carolina in September 2010 after it was struck by a different dirigible moored nearby that had broken loose in a storm. The Army and Raytheon sat on the news for more than six months, until InsideDefense.com saw a mention of the collision in a GAO report.

The crash cost the Army another $168 million.

And the money keeps on flowing. Just two weeks ago, the Army awarded Raytheon another contract, this one for $12 million simply to keep the blimps maintained for the next six months

https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014 ... -maryland/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Chizzang]

So we agree that Military Industrial Communism is a far more acceptable form of communism than the kinds the Republicans warn us about from the Left



Apparently we're all crazy socialist fanatics just a mere 6 degrees from full blown communism
It just comes down to what flavor of communism you like

I really am not sure what the hell you are on about.

Personally I think that military production when it comes to proprietary technology fits into a different category altogether when it comes to industry. The sheer level of technology that has evolved over the years to produce things like Chobham armor would never have come about if not for military spending, and nobody other than the military is going to buy M1 tanks. At least I'm not in the market for one.

SO there is no good answer. It is tempting to say that at least some military producers should be state owned, but that opens up a whole different can of worms.

I don't think that we are in danger of losing the ability to produce tanks or aircraft if we shut down the programs (like the F-22), but if the time comes where we need them again, the cost of restarting production could well be greater than if we had simply continued to produce at a rate that kept production profitable. It is just an observation, I really don't care one way or the other anymore. We have pretty much crapped the bed in terms of our own sovereignty and national identity anyway. Its just a matter of time before more homogenous societies like China relegate us to the status of a Finland or a Moldova. So having lots of guns and bombs would just prolong our agony.

In fact, we should probably just annex into China now, while they aren't inclined to shove us all into the ovens and be rid of us.

Mostly I'm just F****ng around and grand standing...
I do realize that to care about this is similar to caring about the TSA
The answer is always "more money" and the solution is always "There is no solution"

[89Hen]

Here's another spendy program for the Army. These two should be up in the air soon looking down on all you EC(b) fellers.

They are putting up two in Aberdeen, MD either this week or next.