March 2015
By Bill Sweetman
The U.S. Air Force is thinking (click here) about replacing the late-1950s- era engines on its Boeing B-52 bombers with modern ones. It should have done that a decade ago, but back then, the Air Force believed that the cost of the new engines would barely be offset by the savings in fuel. This reasoning was based on the assessment that the cost of fuel wasn’t that high, but the service forgot that B-52s are voracious users of air-to-air refuel- ing. By the time the gas comes out of a KC-135 tanker’s boom, the delivery cost has increased by a factor of 15.
By Bill Sweetman
The U.S. Air Force is thinking (click here) about replacing the late-1950s- era engines on its Boeing B-52 bombers with modern ones. It should have done that a decade ago, but back then, the Air Force believed that the cost of the new engines would barely be offset by the savings in fuel. This reasoning was based on the assessment that the cost of fuel wasn’t that high, but the service forgot that B-52s are voracious users of air-to-air refuel- ing. By the time the gas comes out of a KC-135 tanker’s boom, the delivery cost has increased by a factor of 15.
This planning deficit is nothing unusual. It would be a tribute to Boeing engineers’ advance planning that the BUFF (Big Ugly Fat, er, Fella) is due to keep flying until at least 2040, when the airplanes will be octogenarians...except that the longevity has been achieved despite the best that military planners could do.
The B-52 was nearly cancelled before a sliver of metal was cut. By the fall of 1948, Boeing had designed a swept-wing, tur- boprop-powered XB-52, but in October a Boeing team at Wright Field in Dayton, Ohio, was handed the bad news. Convair had just proposed hanging jet booster engines on the in-production B-36, erasing much of the XB-52’s speed advantage. But, the Air Force planners said, if Boeing could come up with an all-jet, long-range bomber....
The USA pays for the new boats and jets, but, when they aren't running right and a threat to the USA military impacting it's readiness, the people have to PAY AGAIN to repair them.
That is the exact problem with the F-35. Everyone of our allies were purchasing the F-35, now, because of the disasterous junk it is, the costs to ATTEMPT to make it servicable, the costs are in the TRILLIONS.
Every time the USA receives incompetent vessels it sets back the readiness of the USA military. And all the Republicans want to spend more and more on the military. I don't think so.
The USA pays for the new boats and jets, but, when they aren't running right and a threat to the USA military impacting it's readiness, the people have to PAY AGAIN to repair them.
That is the exact problem with the F-35. Everyone of our allies were purchasing the F-35, now, because of the disasterous junk it is, the costs to ATTEMPT to make it servicable, the costs are in the TRILLIONS.
Every time the USA receives incompetent vessels it sets back the readiness of the USA military. And all the Republicans want to spend more and more on the military. I don't think so.
