What Good is a Budget?

  • F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (48 percent over budget on a program already planned to cost hundreds of billions of dollars)
  • DDG-51 guided missile destroyer (619 percent over on a hundred-billion-dollar-plus program) The ships will not have the capacity to carry the envisioned and yet to be developed follow-on to the Harpoon anti-shipping missile. It will cost still more to add that into the equation.
  • V-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft (44 percent over on a roughly sixty-billion-dollar program)
  • VC-25 (Air Force One) program – two billion per airplane, and over budget
F-35A Lightning II
Before you jump me from behind and wrap a piano wire around my neck and pull it tight against the zip-tie style ratchet, yes, I know how procurement works. And yes, I know it’s also a jobs program with components of the F-35, for example, built in all fifty states – welfare for the middle class. 
And yes, I know the dirty little secret about the F-22 Raptor (@$339 million each), which is not much of a secret. If you need to have two that work, you should have four on hand because they are a maintenance nightmare. Will the F-35 be better? Really? At least we haven’t scrapped the A-10, much as the Air Force would love to. I suggested that the USAF give the program to the Marines, but they don’t want to do THAT. They just want it scrapped and replaced by stealth F-35’s. What good is a “stealth” close ground support aircraft?
Rosie Deported?
There is an ugly rumor floating around that Rosie O’Donnell has been deported by angry Canadians, demanding that the US take her back. There is word spread of a burgeoning food shortage in cities that Rosie has visited.
This rumor needs to be put to rest. I tried to fact check it, but SNOPES is now owned by the corrupt, elite, mainstream media. So that won’t work.
I tried Facebook, but that’s being managed by the progs, who eliminate any news that they’re not comfortable with by tagging it, “fake”. The only solution is to let the photo speak for itself.
Is Israel a Threat to the Arab World?
A map is useful in this analysis. The Israelis are accused of colonizing Arab land. Why does New Zealand care so much about that?
More to the point, why are we still pumping money into the UN? Maybe it’s time to leave and do something useful with the building? President Trump could re-purpose it.

And while I’m on a UN rant, NOBODY who reads this blog has made a case for why we should pump billions of dollars into that rat hole. I expected somebody – or maybe a passing prog – would stand up for those worthless programs. Yes, I realize that we dump money into the third world that way to make liberals feel good about their fancy homes and exotic coffee blends, but what does AMERICA get out of it?

The number of credentialed foreign spies that are accredited to the UN literally boggles the mind. And no, I’m not being Xenophobic. We need to move the UN to Beijing.

Hillary Reset?
There is talk in liberal circles about a Hillary Clinton (a fan of the United Nations) run for the presidency again in 2020, with a whole new approach (defined by the latest focus groups) and a whole new persona.  While it’s mostly just a bunch of coastal elite media types who are hurting from their bruising at the hands of President Trump exorcising their wet dreams, the Clintons are responding. They’d be better off running Chelsea for school board or something and might find a more likely victory in that. Bill Clinton feels that angry white men are responsible for Hillary’s defeat. Maybe run Chelsea for school board in Harlem? 
Amid all of this noise about Hillary, I am not hearing much about Anthony Weiner and his future political aspirations. Whenever I think about Hillary, my thoughts immediately turn to Anthony and Huma Weiner, her closest confidants.
Hillary Clinton must have had half a dozen resets during her most recent presidential campaign, where in each case her aspirations morphed to fit the conclusions of polling and focus groups. I can only wonder what the most recent liberal focus groups are suggesting to her for her future in politics.

Then there is the contemptible Obama…and he’s still around causing mischief with thirty days to go before he’s out for good. Ok, BUT not for good because he’s planning a run in 2020 as well. Not to support him then would be —–wait for it. Racist.

A Parting shot:

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25 COMMENTS

  1. LL,

    Correct me if I'm wrong. I know some officers in the Air Force (living next to Nellis, that's easy)who have said the F-22 is an absolute bitch to fly. A few have also said they have heard through the grapevine (none have had access to one yet) the F-35 is no better.

    As it has been known for so long now that the F-22 was bad to say the least, can one be blamed for questioning the F-35 project, not just because of cost but for the simple fact that our pilots deserve the best, not crap?

  2. Tsk, tsk, the UN is all about "peace". Shove money at the world's apex murderers, rapists, extortionists, and exploiters and maybe they won't attack or hurt us.

  3. In some USAF circles, questioning the quality and utility of things that cost $400 million a copy is heresy. Fortunately for me, I'm not in the Air Force.

    We're not making F-22's anymore and the Air Force has decided on the F-35, but it doesn't work right — yet. Maybe if they cost another $100 million a piece they'll be better?

  6. I have never liked the Osprey. Hubby has tried to tell me how it's better than the 'normal' helicopters; but I still don't like it.

    Wasn't the F-35 pushed as a 'joint' service fighter, to help cut costs? Not that it helped.
    It should be cut and a few hundred more A-10s built. I know the pilots would be happier. Everyone liked the little Wart Hog. Definitely more useful than the feral ones. Or libs for that matter.

  7. Regarding the Osprey….A few of my friends 'in the know', so to speak, tell me that it has something like a 2% power reserve when running on one engine. And that the transmissions and gearboxes are running at 100% of rated load.

    A different subset of those friends tell me that the F-35 is probably about the worst airplane to ever be put into production. Far worse than the F-111 which took a few years to turn into a "good" airplane.

    I'm slightly at odds with your opinion of the Burke-class ships. They're far more competent than the Little Crappy Ships, and that floating turd that the Zumwalt-class ships.

  8. Appreciate the input, drjim. Those percentages seem to indicate that is not a good thing..

    Don't know anything about Navy ships, but I have read about the Zumwalt class and would have to agree with you on that.

  9. In Engineering (ALL fields) running or using things at 100% of their ratings implies no safety factor.

    Which means things wear out very quickly, catastrophically fail at most inopportune times, or both.

    As you suspected, NOT a good thing to do….

  11. F-35 Maint/Hr cost is over $35,000 with a brand NEW airplane! F-18s are still under $20,000 even as old as they are!!!

  12. That's what your president kept telling us – hoping that if he said it long enough and loud enough that it would be true.

  13. I'm a fan of the DDG 51 Class, but even they are not being built for anti shipping weapon capacity and will need extensive refits. The LCS are a waste of aluminum.

  15. The F-35's massive bugs may be able to be fixed in time with many millions of dollars. But it's not how we should make things.

  18. Just to clarify, your opinion is that ships like a future Burke-class replacement should carry a larger number of anti-ship weapons? Sort of like an "arsenal ship"?

  19. The harpoon is obsolete and the Burkes don't carry tomahawks. There is a hypersonic version of the harpoon in the works but it will be even larger than the long Standard Missile that the Flight 3 Burkes will be fitted out for. Which means that it will need some sort of new launch system/bay. My argument has never been against the Burkes/DDG 51 Class, which is an American success story. I simply find the ongoing cost over-runs with more in the offing to be maddening. The Burkes need to all be refitted to fly the new BMD Standard Missiles whereas only about 30 have that capacity now.

    As I understand it the later Flight II and Flight III Burkes will have a lot of advanced tech. of the sort that the Zumwalt Class had been envisioned to carry. But there are very unlikely to be more than 3 Zumwalt Class DDG's

  21. For further clarification, I think that the future of the Carrier Battle Groups will include arsenal ships which are in and of themselves, inexpensive hulls with propulsion systems that allow them to keep up with the CBG. They will have the BMD launchers to protect the CBG, but hypersonic missiles may make the BMD's less useful.

    A CBG with it's E-2's aloft can see far beyond the horizon and they will be able to detect (presumably) hypersonic missiles inbound. Intercepting them is a challenge that may fall to lasers. The problem that the enemy has is actually targeting the CBG and flying the missile in based on coordinates. Providing that they can match coordinates, a very fast response is necessary. Burkes are not equipped to manage that and neither are air wings.

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