Defense Spending: Our Top Priority?

[rachel1]

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There is more and more talk about the upcoming sequestrations, so we take a moment to look at the wasteful spending that occurs in the the defense budget.


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When will anyone in Congress suggest reducing the wasteful and useless defense budget? Are the frivolous occupations of Afghanistan, Iraq, and the undeclared war in Pakistan and Yemen and Somalia not enough?

[elleng]

1. Certainly when Wayne Powell is elected to Congress.

http://www.powellforva.com/

[oldsarge54]

2. Guess I'm not quite a liberal

There is waste in the military, but is it the military doing the waste is the real question. Consider, the military does not start or suggest interventions, contrary to what hollywood likes to say. So aim your ire elsewhere. As far as procurement is concerned, Congress has imposed the cost plus contracting that allows for overruns. You see, almost all military manufactures has something in nearly every congressional district. An example of congressional waste would be the B-2. The Air Force only wanted 12. Congress pushed for 24. You've all heard about the $700 hammer, but that story is old, from the 60s. What Proxmire didn't say was that the blackbird and more recent 117 used pretty exotic skins. You know what happens if a sears roebuck hammer or screwdriver was used on those exotic skins, the result is a lot like cancer that takes out the whole skin. Current problems with the F-22 and Osprey, take it up with congress. The Osprey, or something like it, is needed. The F-15 is actually getting somewhat long in the tooth, and no matter how much you upgrade a F-16, it is still so 80s, man. You want to complain about waste, fine. Target the guilty. For that matter, consider targeting yourselves. Don't you judge your representatives effectiveness by how much money he/she brings into the district?

[xtraxritical]

3. Yes, your right Congress holds the purse strings.

That's why sequestration was passed by congress, none of them can be blamed directly for cutting military spending. Cutting military spending and putting those dollars to use in the domestic economy is the best thing to happen to America in many years, imho.

[Citizen Worker]

4. Speaking as someone who worked in the defense industry for 24 years, and with most of that time with

the corporation that designed and built the SR-71 Blackbird, although not in the same division, I can state that defense spending the goose that layed the golden egg as far as the contractors are concerned. I know because I was there.

The Blackbird has a titanium skin while the F-117 is made of composite material. Two totally different manufacturing processes with their own unique problems. The Blackbird was designed and built in the '50s and operational in the early 60s. How do I know this? My boss was the flight operations manager.

The F-117 was built by the same contractor as the Blackbird but I don't recall any controversy over cost or delivery but I may be wrong.

The B-2 bomber was a fiasco from the beginning. Final cost per plane $2 billion! Or, compared to the price of gold at the time, each plane cost more than it was worth in its weight in gold. I turned down a job on the B-2 because I would have been required to work 72 hours per week. No thanks!

Not only was there the $700 hammer but there was also the $600 toilet seat, $400 pliers, etc. But my two favorites are the $15,000 super Mr. Coffee machines that were required to work in an unpressurized atmosphere and the real topper was the FAX machine for the Air Force that was required to be able to transmit while submerged in one meter of water! Off hand I don't recall the price of said FAX machine but it most certainly was tens of thousands of dollars more than what you would pay at Office Depot.

Government contracts are pure gold for contractors. I was approached about signing off on a 10X increase in a Change Order and I refused. My engineering counterpart likewise refused to sign off on a 10X increase for his part in the same change order. I don't know what the final cost to the government ended up being but I can say that the real cost was less than 50 labor hours while the Change Board wanted me to sign off on 500 hours! Not bad, ehhh?

[oldsarge54]

5. Skunk works of Lockheed

My hat is off to you, and a touch of envy. I remember the day after Russia invaded Afghanistan we had a 3 SR launch over six hours. Being the Base housing was about 300 yards from the end of the runway. Between them and the q model water burning 135s it was a noisy day after Christmas. What I believe is perhaps we should go after the old rules, deliver the bird to specs or fix it on the companies dime.

[xtraxritical]

6. I lived a couple of blocks from the Skunk Works in Burbank back when

there were lot's of jobs there. I wish we could have a "green" Manhattan project and revive programs like the Skunk Works for the domestic economy.