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Cancelled/mothballed government defense projects: 10 billion.

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Military spending is never deemed wasteful,.. unless it involves saving soldier's lives with body armor. THEN they start counting the beans.
 
10 billion is chump change. I'm more upset about the f-35 which costs way more. They should never have tried to make 1 plane fill so many roles. It will never be able to fulfill all the roles it was intended for. Maybe half of the roles could be fulfilled but that's it.
 
zephyrprime said:
10 billion is chump change. I'm more upset about the f-35 which costs way more. They should never have tried to make 1 plane fill so many roles. It will never be able to fulfill all the roles it was intended for. Maybe half of the roles could be fulfilled but that's it.
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they thought that because the F4 worked so well (after all the kinks were worked out) that the F35 could accomplish the same - Great sell job by Lockheed.

Ignoring the F111
 
The problem was combining the B version with the A/C versions when the B model was going to have characteristics that were going to compromise the A/C versions.
 
I don't think the U.S. military has ever wasted more money on a type of project as it has on laser weapons/defence systems. It's the ultimate boondoggle - it'll never be even remotely useful unless America suddenly desperately needs the capability to make things within 500 meters uncomfortably warm.

Really advanced R & D is going to flop more often than it succeeds, but at least spend the time and money on something that has the slimmest margin of success.
 
yllus said:
I don't think the U.S. military has ever wasted more money on a type of project as it has on laser weapons/defence systems. It's the ultimate boondoggle - it'll never be even remotely useful unless America suddenly desperately needs the capability to make things within 500 meters uncomfortably warm.

Really advanced R & D is going to flop more often than it succeeds, but at least spend the time and money on something that has the slimmest margin of success.
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Could lasers be sufficiently effective at high altitudes?

If so, about how high?

Fern
 
I'm not really disappointed by the project concepts, I'm disappointed that the same people who funded these programs were likely against the Superconducting Supercollider.
 
irishScott said:
I'm not really disappointed by the project concepts, I'm disappointed that the same people who funded these programs were likely against the Superconducting Supercollider.
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There will always be more worthwhile projects than money to fund them. We all agree that technology needs to advance but there will always be debates on what to fund.

But yea...why wouldn't we invest in a large hard on?
 
rudeguy said:
If I could do it without looking like a wannabe I would. Those pants look comfy!
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They're really comfy and practical with the giant cargo pockets. I wear the tan ones because they work better for the climate. I think you could get away with wearing the black ones to work. I wear civilian shirts so no one would ever mistake me for military or trying to be a poseur.
 
norseamd said:
The problem was combining the B version with the A/C versions when the B model was going to have characteristics that were going to compromise the A/C versions.
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They should have simply scrapped the STOVL version. The marines could stick with helicopters and the Navy and Air Force for air support.
/armchair general
 
IronWing said:
The plane is currently parked in the boneyard in Tucson if you'd like to gaze upon your investment.
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If you don't count the time and money spent at NASA on this prior to the Air Force taking over in 1996, that 5.3 billion spread across 15 years comes to around 350 million per year.

That's less per year that the US taxpayer lost in the failed Solyndra deal..

It's all about perspective. In the single year 2012, the same year this one project was cancelled, the United States gave out the following in foreign aid:

Israel - $3.01 Billion
Afghanistan - $2.3 Billion
(right there is the 15 year cost of that project)

Pakistan got $2.1 Billion in aid
Iraq - $1.7 Billion
Egypt - $1.5 Billion
Jordan $676 million, Kenya $652 million, Nigeria $625 million, Ethiopia $580 million and Tanzania $531 million.

That's almost $12 billion given away - in a single year. Many of those countries I might add, are not all that friendly towards us as a country. What do we get from that spending? We get jack shit!

Does the military waste money? Hell fucking yes it does, but compared to the entire US government as a whole, this R&D stuff is but a drop in the bucket.

If people knew the true amount of waste and outright fraud that's literally built into the US budget I think their heads would explode. Oh sure every year some reporter or some Congress member or Senator will put out an op-ed outlining a handful of wasteful and unnecessary spending projects, that is still an even smaller drop in a smaller bucket.

I know there are those who call for an audit of the Federal Reserve, what we need is an audit of the entire federal government's spending.
 
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