The F-35: Example of the Ultimate Waste of Taxpayer Dollars

 Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart

 

2006. This was the first year the F-35 combat aircraft rolled out of the Lockheed-Martin factory in Fort Worth Texas. In September of 2023, problems with the aircraft continue and there is no expected date for mass production. The Pentagon’s budget is nearing one-trillion dollars annually. However, projects like the F-35 have proven not to be cost effective. This is government waste at its worst.

The recent estimate claims that one aircraft will cost about $120 billion, with long term costs estimated to reach $1.3 trillion over an estimated 66-year lifespan.

Here’s what’s interesting. Tests of the F-35 have been inconclusive. In a simulated “dogfight,” it lost to the now antiquated F-16. No one can guarantee its effectiveness or reliability in actual combat situations.

Let’s look at another situation reported from the Herlong Army Base in Northern California. It has been reported that there are hundreds of Abrams Tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles gathering dust in warehouses on the base. Both vehicles remain in active production.

Across America there are dozens of warehouses containing obsolete munitions. No one knows what to do with this dangerous and lethal debris. These few facts prove that the Pentagon wastes one-half of its yearly funding.

This brings me to a question no one else will ask: “why do Republicans insist on funding a military which is five times larger than all other nation’s combined?” Add to this the undeniable fact that this gigantic war machine, with all of its overpaid and incompetent leaders, lost every war since WWII: the Korean conflict, which has never officially come to an end: the Vietnam War which ended in shame and disgrace: (the Gulf War was not a war but a military police action to save oil wells and lasted a few days): the invasion of Iraq which cost our nation hundreds of billions of dollars, the lives of thousands of Americans and tens-of-thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians. It also created ISIS and other radical groups: the 20-year war in Afghanistan which was designed to capture of kill Osama bin Laden failed. Why our military remained has never been answered. Once again thousands of lives and billions of dollars were lost. Between Iraq and Afghanistan the monetary loss was in the trillions of dollars.

Over the weekend an F-35 crashed after the pilot ejected. Because the aircraft is equipped with stealth technology, none of the debris was found until Monday. I doubt we will ever know the truth about why the pilot was forced to eject, this is the way our government and our military operate in the 21^st century.

That’s okay, only a few billion dollars lost.

Op-ed by James Turnage

Sources: https://armscontrolcenter.org/f-35-joint-strike-fighter-costs-challenges/

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/f-35-fighter-jet-missing-pilot-ejects-mishap-rcna105534

Find my novels here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/James-Turnage/author/B00LOCJ2Z2?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

 

Op-ed by TheWiseOldFart

 

2006. This was the first year the F-35 combat aircraft rolled out of the Lockheed-Martin factory in Fort Worth Texas. In September of 2023, problems with the aircraft continue and there is no expected date for mass production. The Pentagon’s budget is nearing one-trillion dollars annually. However, projects like the F-35 have proven not to be cost effective. This is government waste at its worst.

The recent estimate claims that one aircraft will cost about $120 billion, with long term costs estimated to reach $1.3 trillion over an estimated 66-year lifespan.

Here’s what’s interesting. Tests of the F-35 have been inconclusive. In a simulated “dogfight,” it lost to the now antiquated F-16. No one can guarantee its effectiveness or reliability in actual combat situations.

Let’s look at another situation reported from the Herlong Army Base in Northern California. It has been reported that there are hundreds of Abrams Tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles gathering dust in warehouses on the base. Both vehicles remain in active production.

Across America there are dozens of warehouses containing obsolete munitions. No one knows what to do with this dangerous and lethal debris. These few facts prove that the Pentagon wastes one-half of its yearly funding.

This brings me to a question no one else will ask: “why do Republicans insist on funding a military which is five times larger than all other nation’s combined?” Add to this the undeniable fact that this gigantic war machine, with all of its overpaid and incompetent leaders, lost every war since WWII: the Korean conflict, which has never officially come to an end: the Vietnam War which ended in shame and disgrace: (the Gulf War was not a war but a military police action to save oil wells and lasted a few days): the invasion of Iraq which cost our nation hundreds of billions of dollars, the lives of thousands of Americans and tens-of-thousands of innocent Iraqi civilians. It also created ISIS and other radical groups: the 20-year war in Afghanistan which was designed to capture of kill Osama bin Laden failed. Why our military remained has never been answered. Once again thousands of lives and billions of dollars were lost. Between Iraq and Afghanistan the monetary loss was in the trillions of dollars.

Over the weekend an F-35 crashed after the pilot ejected. Because the aircraft is equipped with stealth technology, none of the debris was found until Monday. I doubt we will ever know the truth about why the pilot was forced to eject, this is the way our government and our military operate in the 21^st century.

That’s okay, only a few billion dollars lost.

Op-ed by James Turnage

Sources: https://armscontrolcenter.org/f-35-joint-strike-fighter-costs-challenges/

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/f-35-fighter-jet-missing-pilot-ejects-mishap-rcna105534

Find my novels here: https://www.amazon.com/stores/James-Turnage/author/B00LOCJ2Z2?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true