Military budget cuts: If F-22 program goes, Florida could lose ...

Brad Beck wrote:

Mr. Burnett is incorrect. The most expensive airplane ever developed, on a per plane basis, is the B-2 stealth bomber. As a note on the F-22, Defense Secretary Gates assumes in his budget that a future opponent will "not" be China or Russia. For example, he thinks we have a proper balance of F-22's, F-15's, F-18's etc...However, in exercises I have personally participated in we have not faired well in simulated air combat with Russian and Indian SU-37's and other fighters. This applies both to the F-15's and F-18's. The question is, do we currently have a "top-of-the-line" fighter to take on the Chinese say, in a dispute over Taiwan? I don't think so.
Secretary Gates should rethink his budget, as least from the perspective of air combat and air supremacy. The proposed F-35 is not a fighter in the true sense of the word so is not a good replacement candidate for more F-22's.

pending calamity wrote:

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I do face it and while persuing an Economics Degree at FSU in the latter 80's, I became intimately knowledgable on deficit and military/defense spending.

ratttlecattle wrote:

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Hey Dummy,
We bombed North Vietnam for ten years, using more bombs than WW2 yet LOST the war.
The Pirates of Somalia are even making a fool out of the USA ...TODAY
They made an **** out of us already by shooting down Blackhawks and we still cannot handle them
The USA is a gutless foolish nation, spend hundreds of billions on CRAP secret aircraft and cannot even handle a bunch of gorillas with AK47s
Lets spend more BILLIONS...that is the ticket for the STUPID STATES OF AMERICA

John Doe wrote:

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My apologies but as you called me a "dummy" to stay on topic please explain to me how an F-22 would have changed any of the situations you described? Also, those Pirates got sniped by the same military you are saying are foolish even with their AK47s and the captain was recovered alive. Yeah those snipers must be pretty stupid.

ratttlecattle wrote:

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Mr DOE,
You must be a member of the famous Doe Family.
Those snipers are good shots , that is what they are paid for. Low tech threat, low tech solution.
Notice how worthless F22's , B52's Nuclear subs and aicrafts carriers woulda been.
So lets spend billions on more F22's and B-2 bombers, they can fool the radars that do not exist from low tech bad guys.
$200 worth of RAZOR WIRE wrapped around the handrails of that ship would have prevented the whole incident...DUH.
But NOOOO...lets build MULITIBILLION DOLLAR weapons systems....lets mke it expensive and complicated. GO USA!!

John Doe wrote:

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I love how you take a situation where the pirates had guns and RPGs and say that Razorwire would have prevented the entire situation. Low budget answer for high tech problems. Besides the F-22 and other aircraft variations were not built to defend against Pirates off the coast of Somolia. Of course it looks ridiculous. When someone of more siginificant technology decides to make a move one of these days your Razorwire trick is not going to help you. Imagine for a second if North Korea was to get up one day and fire a long range missile at a US target. What should we do? Would it not be beneficial to use the missile defense system (the complicated and expensive stuff you are criticizing) created through the defense budget by the same company as the creator of the F-22 you want to cut back and stop them or would you like it to slam into the US Target? Your argument holds water against Pirates but when someone of a little more skill and technology gets hostile you will be begging for the technology you want to cut back.

ratttlecattle wrote:

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Technology???
What good did tech do in the Vietnam WAR? It is what got us into the V war. Tech knuckleheads from the Pentagon rationalzed a victory using helicopters the so called " theory of vertical envelopement". We got so many shot down that the Pentagon covered up the numbers.
The COURAGE of the Vietnamese people crushed all of our evil high tech crap and spit it back into our faces.
Of course we could have nuked them with our high tech sick nuclear weapons, but even dullard americans would have then figured out the truth. The USA is a sick greedy evil nation.
Do you actually think any americans ever gave a damn about the Vietnamese, it was a war for the sake of war for the sake of the money generated.
We never wanted to win that war, we just wanted to keep up the obscene spending. WAR paranoia = War spending= war profits = GREED, that is what the USA is all about.
The ignorant American people reeled in horror on the KARMA LOAD they recieved on 9/11/01. FINALLY some of the innocent people killed in sneak up bombings were OURS for a change.
We claimed how sneaky those bombers were as we build STEALTH Bombers. We are morally lower than they are.
So what does our sick government do, they start a campaign of revenge that has resulted in 4200 american RAMBOZOS being killed plus approx 100k Iraqis.
You like HIGH TECH TOYS> Try finding a weapon that will expose the evil nature of the corrupt dangerous nation known as the USA.
If you will recall the GREAT SUPERSTUPIDPOWER USA still has the USS Pueblo sitting in a harbor in North Korea. They took it from the USA using LOW TECH ,just as the North Vietnamese HUMILIATED and defeated us LOW TECH.

John Doe wrote:

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You obviously have issues with technology. I am not arguing with you anymore have fun.