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Spending more than the other top 20 countries on military and still having a shit military is pure America.
That's been my impression of anything made in America in the last 2 decades.
Equally as shitty as the cheapest garbage you can find except it also weighs 4 times as much and costs 10 times as much.
If you ever want an answer as to why something is fucked up in the US, 99% of the time it's because it was contracted out to like 50 different companies instead of just being done in-house.
See: transit construction, healthcare, student loan administration, I'm sure there are more
Is there a company that could do everything in-house at this point?
Most companies are suffering from the same disease as the government which is contract fetishization and "running lean", but there certainly exist within this country enough engineers who could simply be federal government employees and design fighter jets.
(If building better and cheaper fighter jets were something we wanted, but I do not think it is. Would be nice for trains, though.)
Why are you all acting like it's a failure? It's purpose isn't to conduct combat missions, it's to make money, and it's done that better than any other piece of military technology that has ever existed.
Exactly, the incentives for government contractors and the government itself lead to projects being prolonged or expanded beyond their original scope because contractors are incentivized to over-promise and under-deliver, knowing that they will still be able to secure future contracts and revenue streams. This also leads to a culture of cronyism and corruption, where certain contractors are favored over others due to their political connections or ability to influence government officials. Additionally, the lack of transparency and accountability in government contracting makes it difficult to determine whether a project is truly successful or not. Failures are swept under the rug, and contractors are able to continue receiving lucrative contracts despite poor performance.
Furthermore, defense contractors, the Pentagon, and elected officials, all work together to ensure that military spending remains high. This military industrial complex is fundamentally driven by a desire for profit, rather than the public interest or national security. As a result, military spending is always prioritized at the expense of other areas, such as education, healthcare, and infrastructure. The ultimate goal here is to divert taxes from things they're meant for back into the hands of the oligarchs.
I can't find the 85% are fucked number in the report, but the relevant quote seems to be
As of March 2023, the air vehicle availability rates for the U.S. fleet were: F-35A 50 percent, F-35B 50.9 percent, and F-35C 57.2 percent. The air vehicle availability goal for the F-35A is 90 percent and the goal for the F-35B and F-35C is 85 percent.
which is better, but still completely pathetic.
oops misread it originally
If the US can't maintain their own F-35s, imagine how bad it must be for everyone else who operates them.
I've worked in defense contracting before and if the subcontractors for the f-35 are anything like the one I worked for, the US military is fucked so many different ways. Manufacturing, repair, and overhaul capacity is probably just above the minimum required for "peacetime". If any of these wonder weapons see extensive use or even attrition, their availability is gonna be lower than that of affordable housing in this country, and neither problem is getting solved without de-privatization.
Hide your working planes among too many broken ones to target all at once. The perfect camouflage.
So? Just buy more!
I find the recent stock-taking of military capabilities, a bit of a concern. My question is whether they are gonna look at everything and go "let's solve this peacefully" or "Let's bomb them anyways".
I think the Ukraine War made a lot of people on the MIC reassess their readiness and realize that they would be running into all of the problems that Russia has run into if they got into an actual war again. So now we've got a lot of talking about how fucked everything is, but of course the only response our system can think up is pumping more money into falling programs.
@Kaplya@hexbear.net here's a part of the answer why the u.s can't send millions of F-35s to the Ukraine to own the ruskies.
The Pentagon: "We got this. In the interest of national security we must continue to throw trillions of dollars at the F-35 program until these minor issues are worked out."
Google...
The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter program remains DOD's most expensive weapon system program. It is estimated that it will cost over $1.7 trillion to buy, operate, and sustain these aircraft.
Dec 12, 2023
Fuck, sorry guys, I keep stumbling into the cockpit drunk and splashing bourbon all over the controls, and, sheesh, wouldn't ya know it, the darn things can't hold their liquor!
AND THEY FLY THEM OVER MY FUCKING HOUSE
The way Boeing has been acting since the 90s, I suppose its not surprising American manufacturing is very shoddy.
good