Jeff Head said:
Which, IMHO, is a recipe for disaster.
The US has ample funds...more than ample funds...to cut in other social spending areas and other foreign aid...or some of the most rediculous grant money you have ever heard of to the tune of hundreds of millions, even billions of dollars...
Partially agree - social spending certainly needs tweaking and new processes of efficiency, as does the defense industry and the way money is doled out by the kanuckleheads in Washington. But enough funds have been reduced from most social programs to the point they are more than paying their share. I've lived on both sides of the social fence.
The people who sit in the defense arena always tout that social services are the bane of funding as does the flip side of the coin when those of the social services think how muc more "good" could be done if we took just a single carrier offline.
Had the current administration and their political hacks and previous political hacks shown some more competence AND if the defence industry was better able to contain cost overruns, the Viking would still be the Mid Range Fleet ASW Asset that it successfully was until a follow on platform was developed, the Spruance might not need to be retired a decade earlier than planned and the Comanche might have been saved - or shelved billions of dollars earlier, and - for grins and giggles - perhaps veterans would not face reduction os THEIR services and benefits. Want to save a few Billion on the long term costs of a major weapons platform? Impregnate effective project management into the system.
Now, will an ASW variant of the Osprey offer a worthy successor to the Viking? Other than fuel costs when transitioning between conventional flight & heli mode, having a dipping sonar capacity in conjunction with sonobouys on a longer range aircraft is pretty stinkin' intriguing
~or~ will it's insufficient range mean that the ASW mission needs to wait for a still written on the back of a napkin CSA Common Support Aircraft ??
