Military update: Vice chairman: ‘Exquisite’ weapons are too expensive

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Military update: Vice chairman: ‘Exquisite’ weapons are too expensive
By Tom Philpott, Special to Stars and Stripes
Pacific edition, Saturday, November 22, 2008

The military must end its quest for “exquisite” weapon systems that are too costly, take years to design and build, and don’t reach troops fast enough, or in quantities large enough, to address ever-changing threats.

The critic here isn’t a Washington think tank or a beltway consultant but Marine Corps Gen. James E. Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the U.S. military’s second highest ranking officer.

Cartwright recalled the wry observation made by some critics of current weapon-buying practices that, by 2015, America’s armed forces will have one airplane and one ship operating in the Pacific, one airplane and one ship in the Atlantic and a single space vehicle orbiting the Earth.

“What they’re really saying, in my mind, is we have gone overboard with exquisite” ships and aircraft, Cartwright said, and “that we have got to get back to scale platforms that are adaptable and flexible.”

Cartwright made his comments at a military professional symposium held Nov. 17 in Arlington, Va., by the Military Officers Association of America.


Rest of article at: http://www.stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=58978