TheWiseOldFart

The annual budget for the Pentagon is nearing one trillion dollars. The first time I wrote this number, I was appalled. $1,000,000,000,000. That is 1,000 billion dollars. No working man could possibly imagine how much money that is. The truth is one-half of their annual budget is wasted, according to a non-profit watchdog organization. A couple examples of our military’s fiscal failures. I researched the F-35 fighter a number of years ago. The project was approved in 1995. Testing was completed in 2021. It was approved for mass production, although I cannot find any information about where or if it is in full production in 2025. [The average flyaway cost of an F-35A (the conventional takeoff and landing variant) is around $82.5 million. The F-35B (vertical takeoff and landing) has an average flyaway cost of $109 million, and the F-35C (carrier-launched) is priced at $102.1 million. These prices are for production lots 15-17, which were delivered in 2023, 2024, and 2025.] The F-35 is th...

  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...