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Then why the hell did we build the entire next generation around the F35? It's like we went all in on production to build carriers but our base is already full
by Mizza 8y ago
Then why the hell did we build the entire next generation around the F35? It's like we went all in on production to build carriers but our base is already full of zerglings.
- sahin-boydas 8y ago+1
- HankB99 8y agoAren't parts of the F35 built in all congressional districts? That provides the major motivation for anything related to building more of them.
- Phlarp 8y agoI've always hear this applied to the B-52 but the F35 may be similarly dispersed.
- tomjakubowski 8y agoNot quite, at least not according to Lockheed's propaganda page. No "economic impact" listed in Hawaii, Nebraska, Wyoming or Alaska. https://www.f35.com/about/economic-impact-map https://www.f35.com/about/economic-impact-map Edit: this source says ~350 districts build components for the F-35. https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/article207050669.html https://www.star-telegram.com/news/politics-government/artic...
- HankB99 8y agoMy recollection was in error. A little searching confirms your information.
- zitterbewegung 8y agoBecause every weapons program is also a jobs program .
- chii 8y agoWhy not just create a jobs program directly, rather than inefficiently and with many middleman taking their cut?!
- Apocryphon 8y agoNot palatable to 20th century American cultural mistrust of government aid.
- mtremsal 8y agoSee also the TSA?
- wnevets 8y agohow else would well connected people become rich?
- zitterbewegung 8y agoBecause it also ensures that your weapon systems are made in this country .
- peteretep 8y agoBecause decades of propaganda that it’s socialism if the owners of capital don’t get a cut in the middle
- PavlovsCat 8y agoIt's a taxpayer subsidy to the military-industrial complex. That some of that money ends up in the pockets of workers is a sad reality that cannot yet be avoided, but it's hardly "the reason". That would imply a level of care that is completely incompatible with a lot of things. Take the use of low-IQ troops in Vietnam: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J2VwFDV4-g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_J2VwFDV4-g But the defense budget is so people can "put food on their family"? It doesn't even begin to add up.
- adventured 8y agoBefore we get around to building half the planned F35s, they'll cancel the program and move on to the next shiny new program. That's how every big defense project works. Here's how it works. You start out with a giant estimate, for 3,000 planes. That giant estimate is mostly caused by the lifetime cost of maintaining 3k planes. As the years roll by, you start chopping production numbers off, while trying to get some cost inflation per unit somewhere. You end up spending 1/3 less, for 1/2 the planes in the end. 20 years after the first F35 flight, you've moved on to the next big thing. Conveniently justified by an inevitable, possibly dramatic, change in what the military needs.
- nradov 8y agoIf "mosaic warfare" actually becomes a thing then the F-35 is actually pretty well suited to participate in it. At least better than legacy platforms which are increasingly difficult to upgrade.