I'm sorry guys but America just can't afford a public option in healthcare

[heh]

The United States' top fighter jet, the Lockheed Martin F-22, has recently required more than 30 hours of maintenance for every hour in the skies, pushing its hourly cost of flying to more than $44,000, a far higher figure than for the warplane it replaces, confidential Pentagon test results show.

The aircraft's radar-absorbing metallic skin is the principal cause of its maintenance troubles, with unexpected shortcomings -- such as vulnerability to rain and other abrasion -- challenging Air Force and contractor technicians since the mid-1990s, according to Pentagon officials, internal documents and a former engineer.

While most aircraft fleets become easier and less costly to repair as they mature, key maintenance trends for the F-22 have been negative in recent years, and on average from October last year to this May, just 55 percent of the deployed F-22 fleet has been available to fulfill missions guarding U.S. airspace, the Defense Department acknowledged this week. The F-22 has never been flown over Iraq or Afghanistan.

...

"It is a disgrace that you can fly a plane [an average of] only 1.7 hours before it gets a critical failure" that jeopardizes success of the aircraft's mission, said a Defense Department critic of the plane who is not authorized to speak on the record. Other skeptics inside the Pentagon note that the planes, designed 30 years ago to combat a Cold War adversary, have cost an average of $350 million apiece and say they are not a priority in the age of small wars and terrorist threats.

...

A spokeswoman for Lockheed added that the F-22 has "unmatched capabilities, sustainability and affordability" and that any problems are being resolved in close coordination with the Air Force.

...

Darrol Olsen, a specialist in stealth coatings who worked at Lockheed's testing laboratory in Marietta, Ga., from 1995 to 1999, said the current troubles are unsurprising. In a lawsuit filed under seal in 2007, he charged the company with violating the False Claims Act for ordering and using coatings that it knew were defective while hiding the failings from the Air Force.

...

The plane's million-dollar radar-absorbing canopy has also caused problems, with a stuck hatch imprisoning a pilot for hours in 2006 and engineers unable to extend the canopy's lifespan beyond about 18 months of flying time. It delaminates, "loses its strength and finish," said an official privy to Air Force data.

In the interview, Ahern and Air Force Gen. C.D. Moore confirmed that canopy visibility has been declining more rapidly than expected, with brown spots and peeling forcing $120,000 refurbishments at 331 hours of flying time, on average, instead of the stipulated 800 hours.

...

When Gates decided this spring to spend $785 million on four more planes and then end production of the F-22, he also kept alive an $8 billion improvement effort. It will, among other things, give F-22 pilots the ability to communicate with other types of warplanes; it currently is the only such warplane to lack that capability.

...

One of the last four planes Gates supported buying is meant to replace an F-22 that crashed during a test flight north of Los Angeles on March 25, during his review of the program. The Air Force has declined to discuss the cause, but a classified internal accident report completed the following month states that the plane flew into the ground after poorly executing a high-speed run with its weapons-bay doors open, according to three government officials familiar with its contents. The Lockheed test pilot died.

Several sources said the flight was part of a bid to make the F-22 relevant to current conflicts by giving it a capability to conduct precision bombing raids, not just aerial dogfights. The Air Force is still probing who should be held accountable for the accident.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dy...ST2009071001019

a plane which costs more to run in an hour then it takes to feed a family for a year.

The US military budget is 700 Billion a year and is almost more then the rest of the world's military budget combined. It is ten times higher then its closest competitor (Either china or north korea, can't remember, either way its like 65~ billion.).

Basiclly, we are spending far too much on ways to kill people as opposed to say, implementing free public healthcare, fixing the education system, or any other large, nessarcy, task.

i think this is a Bad Thing

[CaptHayfever]

Wow.
Has anyone told Lockheed that newer models are supposed to work better than their predecessors, not worse?

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"

[Robotazy]

Let's make the next plane cardboard.

[Metal Man]

Bring back biplanes!!!!

[t3hDarkness]

I think Friend Computer may be on to something.

[Lurch1982]

What is "Military Industrial Complex" Alex?

[PK FIRE!]

Congress using tax money in an irrisponiclbe way, so are we going to have a superbowl this January?

That is correct, however did you wager enough to defeat our returning champion Govermental Bureaucrat?

- You stupid dog!

[Glux]

I don't get it. What's the point of trying to make jets fast (to out run others) if everyone else has the same kind that are just as fast? It's a never ending race for speed! It's not going anywhere!!

[CaptHayfever]

^Ironically.

I can see it now...
Crazy head of state: "Our new fighters can fly at Mach 5!"
Every physicist ever: "No. No, they can't."

And remember, "I'm-a Luigi, number one!"