Ticonderoga Class Arleigh Burke Class It seems counterintuitive but keeping old ships commissioned is expensive. Expertise on the hulls ages out and retires, technology moves on and maintenance demands increase and don't decrease. These life extensions are random and sometimes informed by rational calculations but these are large and cumbersome bureaucracies for which pencil whipping is key. The B52 fleet, the last one rolled off the factory floor in 1962 is destined to be in service until 2060 due to its potential replacements in the B1B, F117 and the B2 bombers are being (or have been)...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iqJ0kg9xvLs I don't agree with everything he says and he gets technical details wrong like "...these destroyer class ships, probably doing the same thing the submarine does." No, but that's OK. One thing that is always missed here is the tax cascade of these purchases where the developers and buyers are paying taxes at every level making this a self-licking ice cream cone. It's much worse than you think. Is national bankruptcy the sole solution to stop the malpractice and fiscal bleeding. My Substack Email me at cgpodcast@pm.me

Of course they did. Boeing is the gift that keeps on giving A Pentagon audit revealed that Boeing overcharged the Air Force by nearly $1 million for spare parts on C-17 cargo planes, with some items marked up by as much as 8,000%. The audit reviewed prices paid for 46 spare parts, finding that 12 were overpriced and nine seemed reasonably priced, while fairness of prices on the other 25 items could not be determined. *** Boeing has been awarded over $30 billion in contracts by the U.S. government for purchasing spare parts for the C-17 and being reimbursed by the Air Force. Eight thousand...

I find some of my correspondents gently berate me for being overwhelmingly negative so I am going to offer insights on occasion into tales of the human spirit that will cause you pause. So dear reader, first, the negativity the modern navy deserves. The floating dumpster fire known as the Littoral Combat Ship continues to cost billions for no maritime combat return whatsoever. I can't imagine receiving orders to command one of these buckets. The real littoral combat vessel should have been an American renaissance in creating a whole new fleet of diesel electric submarines leaning heavily on...

You recall that a rather spendy jet flew on its own for approx 11 minutes in 2023. The pilot of an F-35 fighter jet that briefly went missing in September 2023 before crashing made an "inappropriate" decision in ejecting from the aircraft, a Marine Corps investigation concluded.  The report released Thursday blamed the crash of the roughly $100 million aircraft on pilot error because "the pilot incorrectly diagnosed an out-of-controlled flight emergency and ejected from a flyable aircraft, albeit under extremely challenging cognitive and flight conditions."  On September 17, 2023, the pilot...

The grift that keeps on giving and the poor performance across the board of the aircraft and the sticker shock of the high price for that mediocrity. I am going to say out loud: stealth is over-rated, the ea of manned combat aircraft is coming to a close and this particular air-frame is not aging well. Two Trillion Debt Bucks. The F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter is the Department of Defense’s most ambitious weapons program and plays a crucial role in DOD’s ability to meet current and future U.S. national security goals. At the same time, the F-35 has been plagued by mounting costs and...