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Government
Top Marine General: We Need to Get Comfortable with 'Throwaway' Equipment
2021-02-03
[Mil.com] The U.S. military flies and maintains decades-old planes and helicopters -- sometimes well beyond the planned years of service for the aircraft.

But as the Defense Department works to counter fast-paced military advancements from China and Russia, it needs to think differently about investments, Marine Commandant Gen. David Berger said Tuesday.

"The path we have been on, which we could afford to be on because we were not paced by anybody else -- everything was manned, everything at the most exquisite and highest level of capabilities that technology could give us -- [worked] because we didn't have a peer adversary," Berger said at the National Defense Industrial Association's virtual conference. "We're going to have to get comfortable with throwaway things."
Posted by:Besoeker

#13  as the Defense Department works to counter fast-paced military advancements from China and Russia,

Maybe we could play the Russia card against China and double our advantage-- without wasting trillions on systems that are easily matched when it's one-against-two. Just a thought.
Posted by: Spetch Spawn of the Poles1440   2021-02-03 21:22  

#12  Aren't those called cruise missiles?
Posted by: Slappy   2021-02-03 19:26  

#11  Glenmore: More than twenty years ago I was beating the drum for the elimination of piloted planes. I wanted no more McCains
Posted by: b   2021-02-03 18:07  

#10  LCS?
Posted by: james   2021-02-03 17:26  

#9  The problem with fielding mediocre weapons is that they become targets for better weapons. Where to scrimp? Sensors? Performance? Reliability? Exploiting small performance differences is how you win.

As it's been said before, "You go first General."
Posted by: Ebbuck Uloluling2068   2021-02-03 15:02  

#8  *OR* he could be restating that our "Risk Averse Culture" is making demands on military procurement that are idiotic.
--see also Rand Simberg's Safe Is Not An Option on how risk aversion has hamstrung NASA.
Posted by: magpie   2021-02-03 14:04  

#7  Soon to put out applications for work in some defense company.
Posted by: 49 Pan   2021-02-03 11:30  

#6  I actually proposed 'kamikaze' drones 20 years ago. Back then for a few hundred dollars one could buy a radio-controlled model plane and equip it with a camera, transmitter and explosive charge so I figured the military could do the same for a few thousand dollars.
Posted by: Glenmore   2021-02-03 11:10  

#5  Sure, as soon as they get the bugs out of the F-35 3D- printer software.
Posted by: Mercutio   2021-02-03 07:59  

#4  The MIC dream - every weapon expensive as hell and needs replaced after one use.
Posted by: M. Murcek   2021-02-03 07:37  

#3  Gee General what you are advocating doesn't fit with the new "Green Deal Agenda", remember we must recycle, reduce our carban foot print, be respectful to the environment of mother Gaia.
We can only assume (making an ass of u and me) that you did not get the memo.

/sarc
Posted by: One Rock   2021-02-03 06:22  

#2  Aren't they called "Bullets"?
Posted by: Snineling Flotle8716   2021-02-03 04:26  

#1  Biden and the Progressives believe in throwaway troops instead.
Posted by: Deadeye Jaiting7534   2021-02-03 03:55  

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