Obama Axes Pentagon Plan To Build Billion Dollar Dragon Tank [Archive]

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Seshmeister

07-14-2009, 07:38 AM

ELVIS

07-14-2009, 08:02 AM

:biggrin:

ELVIS

07-14-2009, 08:04 AM

That's crazier than Project Blue Beam...:D

Nickdfresh

07-14-2009, 10:53 AM

As usual, The Onion isn't all that far from the truth:

President Obama Joins With McCain to Eliminate Raptor Fighter Jets
http://con9a.files.wordpress.com/2009/03/f-22-1.jpg
July 14, 2009 9:46 AM

President Obama and his former election rival Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., have found common cause: they are both seeking to eliminate the F-22 fighter jet from the National Defense Authorization Act.

In letters to McCain, the ranking Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and the committee chair, Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., the president urged his support for efforts to eliminate funding for the F-22 "Raptor" beyond the existing contract. (Read the letters HERE.)

Pledging to "veto any bill that supports acquisition of F-22s beyond the 187 already funded by Congress," the president said that Defense Secretary Robert Gates "and the military leadership have determined, we do not need these planes."

When the Defense bill was going through committee, both McCain and Levin voted to strip funding for the F-22, but they lost by a vote of 13-11 and $1.75 billion for seven more Lockheed Martin Raptors is currently in the bill.

The pricey aircraft have never flown in combat and have had frequent maintenance problems. The president first threatened to veto the defense bill if it includes F-22 funding at the end of June, his third veto threat. (Before he was inaugurated, president-elect Obama threatened to veto any bill that held up the second $350 billion in economic stabilization TARP funds, and he has threatened to veto the intelligence bill if it included a provision requiring disclosure to Congress of executive branch deliberations and advice regarding covert actions.

There is currently an amendment on the on the Senate floor, one that could be voted on today, to strike the F-22 funding. At last count, McCain said he did not have the votes to kill the funding.

McCain recently told his Senate colleagues that "supporting the continuation of the program serves only parochial interests at the considerable expense of the Department of Defense and ultimately the taxpayer" and that stopping the program's funding is "vital to achieving the correct balance between the needs of our deployed forces and the requirements for meeting the emerging threats of tomorrow."

Defense contractors, the United Steelworkers and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers have lobbied for the F-22, arguing that the 22,000 manufacturing jobs in 44 states affiliated with the jet's production need to be preserved. Others have argued that the jets are needed for defense.

The F-22 "is the most sophisticated fighter jet in the world with the latest stealth technology to reduce detection by radar" and is "vital to 21st century American military superiority" said F-22 champions GOP Sens. Saxby Chambliss and Johnny Isakson of Georgia, where the F-22 is largely manufactured. The two said that "the decision to limit funding to 187 planes is driven by budgetary decisions, not military requirements" and called it "regrettable that the administration needs to issue a veto threat for funding intended to meet a real national security requirement that has been consistently confirmed by our uniformed military leaders.”

But the Pentagon determination that 183 F-22s are enough "was not made casually," the president wrote, saying the conclusion was based on several analyses based on the length and type of wars the Pentagon thinks it might have to fight in the future and an estimate of the future capabilities of likely enemies.

Spending the $1.75 billion on seven more Raptors, the president wrote, will "waste valuable resources that should be more usefully employed to provide our troops with the weapons that they actually do need."

-jpt

ABCNewsBlog (http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/07/president-obama-joins-with-mccain-to-eliminate-raptor-fighter-jets.html)

ELVIS

07-14-2009, 10:58 AM

Nickdfresh

07-14-2009, 11:05 AM

That's right...

We don't need GM, Chrysler, the Raptor or the Dragon Tank...

:biggrin:

I say we fly the 187 Raptors to North Korea to prove their effectiveness...then make a rational decision...

:elvis:

North Korea would need working radar for the stealth to actually work. Otherwise, pretty much everything would be stealthy over North Korea...

ELVIS

07-14-2009, 11:27 AM

How do you know their radar doesn't work ??

Seshmeister

07-14-2009, 12:06 PM

They don't have electricity in most of their country never mind radar.

They are another fake threat built up to justify vast military spending.

Nickdfresh

07-14-2009, 12:42 PM

How do you know their radar doesn't work ??

Educated guess. Actually, they probably have some radar. But it's shitty, old, and they can't do much about whatever they'd detect anyways...