Cut Away Dudes

From the AP:

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A breakdown in high-stakes budget talks in Congress could threaten plans for a missile defense shield in Europe.

While it is not known what military spending would be cut, an expensive program aimed primarily at defending Europe is unlikely to be spared.

Let me clear the air a bit... Europe can defend itself - or not - I do not care.

Why America spends even one thin dime defending a Europe full of citizens that scorn and despise us is beyond my ability to rationalize. If they cannot defend themselves, they deserve to be conquered. If the European Nations wish to be flushed down the sewer pipes of history because they cannot defend themselves from threats like the present assault on them from the Hague or the current Muslim invasion, I'll be glad to stand by and watch.

Speaking of cutting defense spending, let's start with the the V-22 Osprey.


Touted by the military/industrial people as the best of a helicopter and an airplane combined into one, it is not. It is less effective as a helicopter and cannot equal or better the performance of the ones we now have in inventory either as a weapons platform or a troop carrier. And as a troop hauling aircraft? It's a joke.

We are told that it combines the functionality of a conventional helicopter with the long-range, high-speed cruise performance of a turboprop aircraft. What nonsense. It's only advantage over a conventional helicopter is it goes perhaps 50MPH faster - far slower than any turboporp aircraft - and for that, we have squandered billions.

It is - after all these years - still a dangerous and highly unstable craft that has killed over 30 people during its decades-long development period, and is still not reliable enough to join other aircraft in our operational inventory. Downtime and maintenance on this beast is phenomenal, far above any other aircraft or helicopter of similar capability.

It has cost billions of taxpayer dollars, the return on which has been effectively zero.

What it has done is prove that you can make a brick fly if you spend enough money and have an unlimited amount of time to make it so. That is why it fascinates and is supported by so many of our air enthusiasts... the astounding fact that it actually gets off the ground. If the computers on this thing fail, everyone on board has no chance. There is not a pilot on the planet that can keep this thing from crashing without all it's onboard computers.

This is just one program that could be cut with no losses whatever, except for the Bell-Boeing partnership created in 1986 to develop this contraption at an original estimated cost of $1.714 billion, a cost long since doubled and tripled and quadrupled - with no end in sight.

Congress had the opportunity to cancel this money pit in 1989, but the usual arm-twisting and lobbying and campaign donations by the Military/industrial complex saved this project from it's proper fate, the trash can.

The money spent on this boondoggle is not money spent for our national defense. There is a huge difference between money spent on national defense and the money squandered on pipedreams like this thing.

The V-22 is just for starters. There are dozens of programs just like it. The number of jobs lost? Less than a weeks worth of first-time unemployment claims we see week after week after week.

And as for Europes missile defence system? Let them build their own.