Ben Rich knew a lot about making airplanes. He's responsible for both the SR-71 and the F-117. However he did have the crazy 90's ideas of: making stuff "cheaper", contracting more maintenance and leasing airframes.

The cheaper thing was that, since tires that withstand 100,000 landings are more expensive than tires that only withstand 50,000 landings we should "buy the cheaper one". That thinking died a slow death when the US got involved in Iraq and (worse) Afghanistan. Due to logistical issues, having things overbuilt saves money. Optempo tends to wreck havoc on things not built to last. And sending more cargo flights and LOGPAC runs means servicemembers are at risk needlessly.

Contracting for maintenance is a double-edged sword: on the one hand DEPOT level maintenance work is cheaper, but downrange it's expensive as hell. You can't get workers off the street to go to places like Saudi Arabia (where they open the mail and seize Poor Man's Porn, Allah help you if they catch you with the real thing) or Afghanistan without shelling big big bucks. Some contractors speak of 100K a year for working in safe areas like Saudi and the UAE. CONUS, the civlians are fine as long as they stay in their lane. Downrange? It's a moneypit: fire the contractors and get more green suiters.

Ben Rich died before Darleen "Cash Money" Dryunon got sent to the Federal Pokie for trying to gough the Air Force on the K-767 lease. Rich would have been forced to admit that the free money spigot after 9/11 brought back the bad old days of The '70s / The '80s when contractors tried out their best J.R. Ewing impression.

(J.R. Ewing was a character on "Dallas" the T.V. show...back in The '80s...you millenials just nod okay? Yer makin' me feel old...)

edited 1st Jun '15 8:58:30 PM by TairaMai

The bad old days of contractor gouging are older then the 70's and 80's though.

God the contract for maintenance is sucking the money and the skill base out of the military. The other problem though is how they charge for even simple parts. Every maintainer out there in the military has seen things like high quality 20 dollar simple parts. Then turned around and found the identical exact same part at a local hardware store for a quarter of the cost. Custom made components with special materials is one thing, like the mk-19 chromed feed rail", but all the common crap they always over charge is another. Also deliberately trying to as many things in any given piece of kit "proprietary" to force the military to rely on them exclusively is another problem.

Monopoly in terms of per item cost and maintenance cost is an ugly problem that has only been getting worse.

...I shoot film and have a typewriter somewhere. Sometimes the old ways are just more fun. I rarely send snail mail though, that's too much like work.

It can be as a hobby. Like Pemberton and Son's. These Guys They do old aircraft.

Their youtube channel

I went to school to Jay Pemberton back when I lived Spokane.

Actually, I need to start sending letters or at least cards again. I've got a soapstone stamp and a sealing wax kit that I use to make a custom seal on my written correspondence (written to people I like, not to like, people I'm sending a check for the electric bill to).

Really? I thought Australia ran the MRTT rather than the KC-767◊.

Boeing got the "Wedgetail" contract.

And my comparison was specifically about the KC-767 vs MRTT.

Besides, the only reason the 767 won the USAF contract is because Boeing bitched about it and got the tender re-written to stack the deck in their favour.

edited 2nd Jun '15 5:39:57 AM by Deadbeatloser22

I still don't understand why we weren't flying KC-767s a decade ago.

Oh right, because the Air Force leadership responsible for the deal had to accept pork offerings instead of doing everything on the level. It's a tanker, it's literally an airliner with a fuel hose stuck out the back end. It shouldn't be a fifteen freaking year procurement process before we even have the things flying.

That's military procurement in a nutshell isn't it?

edited 2nd Jun '15 10:38:10 AM by Deadbeatloser22

Back to original programming of the thread◊ lol

RE: Boeing, the USAF and the K-767. In The '90s, the idea of leasing aircraft was attractive. After 9/11 the money spigot was gushing. So Darleen "Orange Is the New Black" Druyun had a brilliant idea:

Guess who negotiated that lease? Boeing lost it's CEO and the CFO went to jail. Then they lost another CEO when Stonecypher couldn't control his libdo.

My grandfather built B-29's during the war and was proud of working at Boeing, I'm never gonna let Boeing live their Dork Age down...

edited 2nd Jun '15 10:01:03 PM by TairaMai

Any better then a PPP for tankers?

Now this is unusual◊...

Airborne Infantry? HOW ABOUT AIRBORNE ARMOR DIVISIONS!

The Russians are basically proposing to build Mobile Suit Carriers.

Is this even remotely possible? Strictly from an engineering standpoint? Cuz if it is, we don't need to worry about the Russian Navy anymore...

200 tones is only 4 tanks per airplane.

That does not seem too hard....

Those aircraft would also be limited in where they can land and even do pallet deployment if they dared.

Then there is the question of shit tons of fuel consumption and the fact it is very challenging to do an airdrop for something as heavy as an MBT.

I don't want to think of the huge cost of just designing and testing these craft never mind actual deployments. I could see it being more useful for lighter vehicles perhaps and shit loads of Paratroops.

edited 3rd Jun '15 8:51:43 PM by TuefelHundenIV

Also, putting all that material on one plane to drop them when tensions are high? Just smells like Interceptor bait.

This project has as much chance of being realized as the Silbervogel.

edited 4th Jun '15 2:50:56 AM by Achaemenid

After the lifting of restrictions for Japan, looks like their first official "transaction" will be the transfer of P-3C Orions license-produced by Kawasaki Heavy Industries to the Philippine Air Force.

Well it's been about an hour or two since we had a good hearty chuckle at the F-35's expense but...

The F-35's Bomb Dropping Exercise Is A PR Stunt.

Gist of the article: Can't carry bombs, can't shoot its gun, still can't take off or land right, what the fuck are we using it for?

Because all the teen series planes are literally coming apart at the seams and we can't produce any more F-22s

edited 4th Jun '15 7:57:05 PM by LeGarcon

^ That means we're gonna get our arses kicked in the next air war aren't we?