New wars, new weapons, new budget. Part IV (So far...) ~ DEFCON 3

Saturday, April 11, 2009

New wars, new weapons, new budget. Part IV (So far...)

4/11/2009

Ehiztari

So, basically the changes concur with Gates and Obama’s new perception of 21st Century. The F-35 is a jet much more qualified than the F-22 for the new battle grounds (skies) -not to mention that, as the el Lightning II can be exported, unlike the Raptor, it is a better business. And about the FCS, it was a very ambitious project that hadn’t shown results yet (and probably won’t do so in the next few years); so it needed to be terminated. Neither the LCS has shown good results, but at least it suits better to the new counter-insurgency scenarios.

Meanwhile, the Marines should be really happy. Almost all their projects passed the cut untouched. The Osprey, the AH-1, their new and highly problematic-overbudget-mostly-delayed EFV and even the F-35 were part of their plans. And not only they haven’t been cancelled, but they have been push forward. Not to mention the extra Special Ops they will get. What else could they want?

That’s only, however, what Gates has said. But now it’s all on the Senate hands, that has a long history of recovering weapons. In fact, Senators think more of the works that will be created or destroyed in the States where they were elected rather than in the nation’s behalf.

In fact, one of today’s Government’s favorite programs, the Osprey, was about to crash 20 years ago. April 1989, just months before the wall came down, the Defense Secretary announced his plans to cut many projects from the Reagan era. Including the V-22. They were a waste for citizens’ taxes. Guess who was? Dick Cheney. Hard to relieve, isn’t it? And he had to face the Senate too.

At the end, the Osprey continued on schedule. And today, it has already seen the battlefields in Iraq and soon it will in Afghanistan. But some generals think now that maybe it could have been better if it had been cancelled. Specially after detecting a bunch of failures that forced to ground all the fleet. But it is also something usual with militaries and kids: they always want the latest toys, but they got tired of them when they already have had them for a while.

For now, Republicans are already shouting at Obama for the cancellation of the antimissile shield (including the ABL). Apparently, Reagan’s shadow is long. And the mobilizations to save the jobs the Raptor creates have been going on for weeks.

Meanwhile, there will be several funny weeks in between. For now, let’s try with Jon Stewart. Just a small mistake for Wyatt: the F-22 (cancelled) doesn’t have VSTOL capabilities, it is the F-35 (ongoing).