F-35

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I'm not trying to be confrontational here. Just pointing out the disconnect. Both F-35 and Mars projects are "predicted" costs for very long term projects and those projected costs are comparable. As a society we emphasize upgrades to war machines over the exploratory projects.

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No. Do you think I'm justifying the B-29 costs?

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"Germany spent much more (mostly a waste, in my view) on the V-1 and V-2 rockets
than the USA spent on the Manhattan Project."
--Duchess64

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Good post.

I hope this isn't a model for the future of military innovation. It sounds like a lot of folks on here are talking about relative capabilities of various jets across the world and what the next one will be. This one was an admitted failure, plain and simple. Now, despite the failures, you can already see the politicians coming out of the woodwork to "clarify that there will be a future for the F-35" or whatever plane comes next will mean cash contracts and jobs for their home district. I predict we're going to fork out trillions more for the next generation of airplanes paid to the same darn company full of cost overruns and failures. Sheeeeeeeesh. Priorities, guys. You've got the "conservatives" over on the other thread complaining about spending the same amount of money on coronavirus bailouts but crickets on the F-35. We've got other, better, bigger things to do than this right?

@wildgrass said
Good post.

I hope this isn't a model for the future of military innovation. It sounds like a lot of folks on here are talking about relative capabilities of various jets across the world and what the next one will be. This one was an admitted failure, plain and simple. Now, despite the failures, you can already see the politicians coming out of the woodwork to "clarify t ...[text shortened]... rus bailouts but crickets on the F-35. We've got other, better, bigger things to do than this right?

Rust never sleeps. Do you think for one minute if America slows down its continual upgrade of weapons systems to maintain its military superiority, that somehow all its enemies will also slow down, or maybe do you think they might see it as an opportunity to rid themselves of Pax Americana?

@wildgrass said
I have heard lots of outrage over the cost of the Mars rover project to find life ($2.5 billion) because we still have homeless people on Earth, but shouldn't we be working big to small if we think government expenditures are not in line with the best interests of its citizens?

Micromanagement of budgeting just like everything else is almost never the answer.

@kmax87 said
Rust never sleeps. Do you think for one minute if America slows down its continual upgrade of weapons systems to maintain its military superiority, that somehow all its enemies will also slow down, or maybe do you think they might see it as an opportunity to rid themselves of Pax Americana?

I think if we're going to loose 3,800 nuclear bombs on Earth we should do it from Mars.

@athousandyoung said
They needed the B29 to deliver the nuclear bomb

The Lancaster could have dropped it. They only needed the B29 to avoid it being dropped by a British made aircraft.

@deepthought said
The Lancaster could have dropped it. They only needed the B29 to avoid it being dropped by a British made aircraft.

Is that true?