| Submit your comments on this article | |
| Home Front: WoT | |
| Obama urged to scrap some Pentagon programs | |
| 2008-11-17 | |
WASHINGTON: A senior Pentagon advisory group, in a series of bluntly worded briefings, is warning President-elect Barack Obama that the Defense Department's current budget is "not sustainable" and that he must scale back or eliminate some of the military's most prized weapons programs.
Those include rebuilding ground forces battered by multiple tours to Iraq and Afghanistan and expanding the ranks to wage the war on terrorism. "Business as usual is no longer an option," according to one of the internal briefings prepared in late October for the presidential transition, copies of which were provided to The Boston Globe. "The current and future fiscal environments facing the department demand bold action." The briefings do not specify which programs should be cut, but defense analysts say that prime targets would probably include the new F-35 fighter jet, a series of navy ship programs, and a massive army project to build a new generation of ground combat vehicles, all of which have been skyrocketing in cost and suffering long development delays. Balance of this article and the songs Obama longs to hear at the link. | |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #22 I kinda sympathize with some of the comments here about some of the newest priciest stuff getting delayed or reduced. I admit I'm not nearly as much up on hardware issues as in days of yore, but it seems we're having good results with current gear and I've been worrying about the numbers/price/capabilities trade-off for some time for major systems. I mean, no matter how magical an F-35 might be in the air, it's gotta be somewhere the action is, and there have to be enough to cover those action spots. Likewise with ships (ahemm, Horn of Africa/Gulf of Aden AO). Plus - are most of the new cutting edge capabilities essentially unused on most of our current august adversaries? Who's gonna play with F-22s or F-35s? |
| Posted by: Verlaine 2008-11-17 23:44 |
| #21 and Eugene used to be a nice place with good people, my how times have changed.... |
| Posted by: Jan at work 2008-11-17 18:54 |
| #20 Vlad the Impaler in 2012! |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2008-11-17 18:35 |
| #19 Vampires and djinns and cockroaches oh my! This allegory of mice and lions is about as predictable as a smurf cartoon. Umm, Vlad and Spartan/Greek comparisons? Are you sure bout that? Get to the Poitiers goofball; rub that monkey paw and get your Tamerlane. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2008-11-17 17:51 |
| #18 PS, the Air Force procurement system has been well and truly hosed since the AF designated program management as a career specialty and started training "professional" program managers. Consequently programs are now managed by officers (and civilians) inured to the arcana of the sea of laws and regulations governing military procurement but with absolutely no experience in using the equipment whose development and production they oversee. Consequently the services field (or more often than not fail to field) overpriced, unreliable, ineffective excrement that is unusable by the troops but makes some congressmen happy. The bigger the program, the more removed from reality the PM is. It isn't going to get better any time soon. The AF is on a going out of business curve. |
| Posted by: RWV 2008-11-17 16:55 |
| #17 "Everything takes longer and costs more." -- Cheops' Law |
| Posted by: mojo 2008-11-17 16:05 |
| #16 Well, it's only natural for Justice to dislike Dracula, considering that Dracula is supposed to be Vlad the impaler. And what does Vlad do with the lions of islam? Shove a tree trunk up their ass and eat lunch while they die slowly. A return of Vlad the Impaler sounds like a wonderful idea to me. Cept he needs to broaden his outlook to include the demonrat party. |
| Posted by: Silentbrick 2008-11-17 15:53 |
| #15 Vigilance is eternal there justice and we have a long memory! We suffered Carter and Clinton. We will survive Obama and come out a stronger nation in the end. And you, you will be the same bitter and backward human being your ancestors were before the first Crusade. |
| Posted by: 49 Pan 2008-11-17 14:38 |
| #14 The Air Force and the Navy need to be brought under adult supervision. If we just kept buying F-16s and Arliegh Burkes instead of F-35s and DDXs (or, God help us, CGXs) I would applaud it as wise policy. |
| Posted by: Plastic Snoopy 2008-11-17 14:31 |
| #13 Justice, whatever you think, it's good to know you'll get your Moon-god ass spanked well and truly. I would say that the Big O has got justice through Democracy, so how about trying a REAL nym like "Justice for Girl-School-Splodeys", or "Female-Genital-Mutilation/Stoning-to-Deathers", I am sure you have their concerns at heart. You will find, if you read the above comments, that a fair few agree with the proposed cuts; that is what is called Well Reasoned Discourse, try it someday. As an aside, if I may just point out that every where Muslims are in the world, there is Trouble, just can't get along, can you, strange that. I asked Allan why that was, and he just said it's an in-bred goat thing, can't be helped. Anyway, prayers must be nearly over by now, go blow up a market place or something. |
| Posted by: fever (Formerly R-fever) 2008-11-17 14:25 |
| #12 How queer -- it's Monday night in Saudi Arabia. Perhaps they are having a school holiday. JUSTICE dear, ask your American friend what it means that John McCain is still a senior member of the US Senate, ie. of the upper house of Congress. Also ask him what will happen if President Obama does not fix America's little economic situation before Congressional elections in 2010. For that matter, you might want to think what it will mean over the next two years for you and your country should oil sales continue their current trends in re volume and pricing. I look forward to hearing from you again when you have completed these assignments. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-11-17 14:17 |
| #11 Technical question: is Justice advocating jailing people for their political opinions because he is an intolerant muslim or because he is an intolerant leftist? |
| Posted by: SteveS 2008-11-17 14:14 |
| #10 JUSTICE for Obama 2008 - I cant tell from your ridiculous post whether you are being sarcastic or not. Either way your post was a huge "FAIL" |
| Posted by: Yosemite Sam 2008-11-17 14:12 |
| #9 But I know BETTER. These Rantburg type fanatics will remain That's right, we'll remain just long enough to shove it squarely up your goat buggering arss. Now run along will you, it's nearly prayer time. Don't you have sister that's offending your honor or something....? |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2008-11-17 13:46 |
| #8 "Justice" is back |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-11-17 13:06 |
| #7 Why doesn't it surprise mean that a spittle-spewing Muzzie doesn't like Dracula? |
| Posted by: Mike N. 2008-11-17 13:05 |
| #6 Remember that bureaucrats, military ones included, have as rule #1 that when budget cuts are threatened, offer to cut the meat first and leave the fat. In this case, this means first go after the largest pork projects supported by the most powerful senators and congressmen. Then say you have to cut the department of "not throwing sacks of kittens into the river", even if this means that grandmothers across the country will riot. Military bureaucrats also let contractors know when somebody is threatening their product, so they can get their lobbyists working full steam to save it. The contractors also let the union know, so they can apply pressure to keep their jobs. I think this is how it has been done since the days of the ancient Etruscans. Probably a millennium earlier. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2008-11-17 12:53 |
| #5 That would be too logical, OS. The Big O is ideologically driven. Only thing is that certain congress critters are local defense economics driven, so this will be a dem on dem fight. Ideology be damned. It will come down to greed and self interest in Congressional districts, which will be, in a perverted way, self preservation. Maybe..... |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2008-11-17 11:35 |
| #4 Thats the Army's FCS program. Cut that and we cut our own throats -- the initial products of that program are some of what gives individual soldiers more mobility, survivability and lethality these days. Cutting a lot of these now is the wrong thing - most have gone through the "R&D" phase, which is costly and produces few tangible goods. Canceling now would be like cutting down the tree just before it begins to bear fruit. Instead, lets drop the duplication, like the extra drug-task-force HQ in PA, unneeded bases in S. Korea and Europe, etc. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2008-11-17 11:22 |
| #3 Maybe this is exactly what the Pentagon needs - a wakeup call that they must be more responsible and accurate with their budget forcasts and appropriations. Its hard to argue against keeping these programs when taking in account how far over budget and how far behind schedule they are. If I ran my job like that, I would be fired. They should be too. |
| Posted by: Yosemite Sam 2008-11-17 11:21 |
| #2 prime targets would probably include the new F-35 fighter jet, a series of navy ship programs, and a massive army project to build a new generation of ground combat vehicles, all of which have been skyrocketing in cost and suffering long development delays. Sounds like he's got the right targets in his sight. |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2008-11-17 10:35 |
| #1 If he starts with anything in Murtha's district then he might have cover, otherwise it just punishment. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2008-11-17 09:25 |