Thursday, December 3, 2015

The Pentagon Wants 100 New Long Range-Strike Bombers

Northrop-Grumman

Martin Matishak, Fiscal Times: The Pentagon Decides How Many Budget-Busting Bombers It Wants

Even though work on the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation bomber remains frozen, a top service official on Wednesday announced the number of aircraft it wants to buy.

“I believe the number is 100,” Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said during an event at the National Press Club in Washington.

The service has said it hoped to purchase between 80 and 100 Long Range-Strike Bombers, which are expected to cost somewhere around $560 million per plane.

“We’re looking to buy about 100, 80 to 100 but probably closer to the 100 mark. It’s going to take time for them to roll out so not all 100 are all going to be there in the mid-2020s,” James said in March during a panel discussion at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

The effort’s total price tag could exceed $100 billion over the next few decades.

WNU Editor: No one believes in the Pentagon's numbers any more .... and that is the heart of the problem .... doubly so with the realization that there really is no money available for this program.

2 comments:

fazman said...

Agreed with the potential threats America faces why do they need a next gen bomber

B.Poster said...

Quite correct. The greatest threats to America are as follows. 1.) An all out nuclear attack by Russia, 2.)an Islamic terrorist attack against the US mainland involving multiple WMD liking including suitcase nuclear weapons and some combination of "dirty bombs" detonated simultaneously across multiple metropolitan areas, and 3.) A conventional invasion of the US mainland by Russia, China, both Russia and China, or Ruusia and China along with some combination of the BRICS.

In any of the three greatest threat scenarios, we aren`t going to be able to prevent the atacks nor could we expect to prevail. At least in the case of Russia and China, they are far to powerful relative to us.

Our goals should be twofold. 1.) Ensure our homeland is well enough defended and our ability to respond to attacks is enough to make it to costly to enemies be they Russia, China, or Islamic terrorists or the nations who support them to consider atacking us. 2.) Seek ways to add value to Russia and China. Essentially find ways we can be needed by them to the point they would not consider attacking us as we are providing value to them.

Essentially a next generatikn bomber has no utility in dealing with the main threats that America faces. To invest in this likely has negative utility as it diverts resources that could/should be used to deal with the real threats