Good news for the miltary

[Booser]

Hopefully it passes... more money for defense in the budget.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2006-02-02-defense-budget_x.htm

Anyone who doesn't like the increased spending should spend a day with our maintainers on the flight line (and I'm in the Air Force, which gets roughly 42% of the defense budget... can't imagine what kind of shape the army is in).

[Ibleedburgundy]

The media got blasted by Rumsfeld for saying the Army reserves were "broken."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/01/25/AR2006012501070.html?nav=rss_nation/special

In this day and age I think we can all agree that having a well-funded military is a good thing.

[akhhorus]

This is good news, but I wish the Military wouldn't waste hundreds of millions of dollars on first class civilian airplane tickets when they have a perfectly good air force and nearly 20 billion on a program(missile shield) that hasn't worked properly and hasn't shown that it can fulfil the fundamental parameters of its design since the testing began.

[BurgundyNGold]

This is good news, but I wish the Military wouldn't waste hundreds of millions of dollars on first class civilian airplane tickets when they have a perfectly good air force and nearly 20 billion on a program(missile shield) that hasn't worked properly and hasn't shown that it can fulfil the fundamental parameters of its design since the testing began.
That's the thing. The military -- and the federal government in general -- doesn't more money as much as it has HUGE efficiency opportunities to go further on the money that it already gets.

[Axegrinder]

I'm all for a strong military.
We should have the best equipt,best trained,and best taken care of
military [financially and benefit wise] always.
We should also have leaders who know how to use them wisely.

[Booser]

This is good news, but I wish the Military wouldn't waste hundreds of millions of dollars on first class civilian airplane tickets when they have a perfectly good air force and nearly 20 billion on a program(missile shield) that hasn't worked properly and hasn't shown that it can fulfil the fundamental parameters of its design since the testing began.

you may be right about the missile shield akh, and i dont know anyone who travels first class (must be above my pay grade).

the military does, however, regularly spend money flying troops around on commercial carriers. Why? it is way cheaper. for example, my jet has a dual role mission and we often carry troops around (normal load is 75). Fuel costs for a KC10 run roughly $50,000/hour. Add to that the man hours in maintenance, pilots, flight engineers, boom operators, and flying crew chiefs, and you are well over that.

even more expensive is the loss of mission capability. if we make a troop run then the jet can not be employed as a warfighter - passing gas to fighters in the AOR or carrying 175,000 lbs of cargo (like bullets, rockets, and rations). remember that there are only 59 total KC10s in the inventory.

So, for argument's sake, lets buy everyone first class tickets. I guarantee that the costs will be far less than flying the sorties ourselves.

[akhhorus]

you may be right about the missile shield akh, and i dont know anyone who travels first class (must be above my pay grade).

Its for congressmen, Defense contractors and other VIPs. The problem is that the DOD buys thousands of plane tickets for these people and never uses them. The missile shield has been a disaster. At best, even by the program head, they think it can stop ICBMs 1 out of 4 times. Worth the 15-20 billion a year being spent on it.

the military does, however, regularly spend money flying troops around on commercial carriers. Why? it is way cheaper. for example, my jet has a dual role mission and we often carry troops around (normal load is 75). Fuel costs for a KC10 run roughly $50,000/hour. Add to that the man hours in maintenance, pilots, flight engineers, boom operators, and flying crew chiefs, and you are well over that.

even more expensive is the loss of mission capability. if we make a troop run then the jet can not be employed as a warfighter - passing gas to fighters in the AOR or carrying 175,000 lbs of cargo (like bullets, rockets, and rations). remember that there are only 59 total KC10s in the inventory.

So, for argument's sake, lets buy everyone first class tickets. I guarantee that the costs will be far less than flying the sorties ourselves.

lol, probably. But in times of need, the Military can nationalize Civilian airliners to use as transport.