This chart comes from a Government Accountability Office report released Thursday. It’s funny how some Pentagon costs seemed to have turned on their afterburners in the wake of 9/11.
Military Spending
The War With Iran Will Have to Wait!
Once again, there’s something – no one will say just what – that the Air Force’s $15 million Massive Ordnance Penetrator can’t do, or can’t do well enough. That’s the 15-ton, Boeing-built bomb the U.S. now has on hand to use against deeply-buried bunkers in places like Iran.
On Thursday, the Air Force awarded this …
“They'll go dead about the time that we wake up.”
Lies, Damned Lies, and The Pentagon’s Latest Budget Numbers
There’s a pair of must-reads just out for anyone paying attention to the Pentagon’s acquisition nightmare: one is a routinely scheduled, but important, report from the Defense Department; the other comes from one of the very …
Remember When Soldiers Did This?
Pentagon Contractor = Iranian Contractor?
Is a Pentagon contractor doing business with Iran, the North Star of the Axis of Evil (NSAE)? Former Time comrade Adam Zagorin probes the relationship among the Kuwait and Gulf Link Transport Company, Tehran, and the Pentagon. It’s an investigation for the Project on Government Oversight, an independent stone unturner. “Amid renewed …
Nice Work If You Can Get It
First award listed in the Pentagon’s Tuesday contract announcements is a cool half-billion to buy something Battleland has never heard of, to a company Battleland has never heard of:
The company is run by a special-ops vet, who conveniently has set up shop in Tampa, home of the U.S. Special Operations Command. Wouldn’t it be …
“One senior political source said the military trumps any objections to its recommendations by warning lives will be lost if they don’t get their way.”
Apparently, the F-35 Isn’t Everyone’s Cup of Airpower
…including Rep. Rush Holt, D-N.J., who terms the tri-service, $400 billion fighter program “the biggest example of corporate welfare in history” (although, as a member of the House’s education and natural-resources committees, he’s not going to be able to do much about it…but he does have a doctorate in physics from NYU, …
F-22 Update: More Bad Air, More Big Bucks
At noon Thursday, Air Force officials said their F-22 fighters are ready for war despite pilots’ repeated breathing problems that may have played a role in a fatal crash and continue despite a seven-month probe into the vexing …
Subcontracting Out War
There have been times since 9/11 when there have been as many contractors working for the U.S. military in the war zones as U.S. troops. It’s one way to keep the troop count down.
The Air Force is seeking contractors to “launch” MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper drones all around the world, according to a “pre-proposal …
$903,500,000,000
The Air Force’s Magic Carpet Ride
The Air Force Academy has just opened its new glider landing strip. It’s an area the size of 23 football fields carpeted in 1.3 million square feet of what the service calls “aviation turf.” The Air Force unveiled the …