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Written by Julian Macfarlane, Tokyo-based media analyst
Added “Value”?
In my career as a media whore, I have worked with a huge range of companies in almost every field – including the so-called “defense” industry.
The defense industry is rather like the auto industry, which must turn out new models regularly with new features, for the most part not necessary for a vehicle’s essential functions.
“Planned obsolescence” was sooooooooo 20th Century. In the 21st Century it is “added value”. Certainly, for cars, each new one, a wunderauto.
Back in the “old days”, a lot of people fixed their cars DIY. They could do that because the technology was pretty simple and hadn’t basically changed much over many years.
Now, it aint that easy. You need specialized dealer maintenance and a really good warranty – all of which are factored into the cost.
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Want basic transportation: ride a bicycle!
Car-makers always pretend that you really, really need the electronic bling, 0 to 100 in 5 seconds, stepless transmissions, collision avoidance radar, reclining seats, etc, etc. Some things have their uses; others are simply useless.
But…without the newest and latest, you will never have sex again.
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Borrowing from your kid’s future
No money? No problem. Get a loan! Debt is the American Way.
Dad buys a car. Mom buys a face lift. The kids eat crap.
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The makers of weaponry do something similar.
Unlike in the Consumer Universe, debt is never a problem for the Pentagon. For the US, foreign debt and foreign policy is like love –never having to say you’re sorry.
The primary consumer, the US government just borrows the money from …wherever…because the dollar is – or used to be — the Universal Reserve Currency—and the US never has to pay those loans back.
Just keep on raising the debt ceiling. Who cares if the people really paying are poor people in the Global South? They starve over there, so you can eat Doritos here and get fat.
Of course, in the long term, Americans suffer too. You don’t have enough money for roads and bridges, railways, healthcare, education, homes, and even school lunches.
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The crap your kids eat will kill them. You, too.
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Choices—and “killer” products
What would you rather have?
A brand new $100 million dollar F35 that only costs $42,000 an hour to fly. The whole fleet at $412 billion and $1.3 trillion to maintain and operate the fleet over its lifetime, not counting add-ons and extra doodads over ten years or so.
Or– pay off student debt: just 3.79 billion over 10 years.
Or good healthy food.
The answer is obvious–we gotta have the F35– even if it is the most expensive piece of junk in military aviation history. It’s a “killer” product – literally.
The aircraft is designed as a battleground bomb truck, with a miniscule radar footprint, assuming a war in Europe like that one almost a century ago. Not useful against China of course – but, hey! — one war at a time.
The F35 has stealth!
Remember when you were 9 and you sneaked next door to peep in Mrs Jones’ window to watch her undressing? Stealth is sooooooooooo cool!
From the frontal aspect, radars designed before 2010 can “see” the F35 – but as nothing more than a flying golf ball or at best a bird. However, how many flying golf balls do you see at 20,000 feet – or birds moving at 900 km per hour? OK. There is background. Noise or if distracted by listening to rock music in your helmet like Hollywood flyboy heroes. You might miss it. Might!
Anyway, the F35 isn’t really designed for air-to-air. Supersonic flight or operating above 20 degrees angle of attack reduces “stealth”, so the golf ball becomes a large balance ball.
No matter–the metier (as I have said) is battlefield interdiction.
The internal bay is not that large and the more BVR (Beyond Visual Range) missiles you put inside, the fewer bombs. The moment it opens the doors open to drop internally mounted bombs or fire missiles, stealth disappears.
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All this means the F35 better off avoiding an Su35 – and better off going low—where unfortunately it is observable by the Mark I human eyeball. Not to mention infra-red. Hang bombs or missiles on it and its radar signature increases. Or, of course, it can stand off about 500km and launch JSM stand off missiles. The range of the S400 is about 400 km – so what does it need “stealth” for?
Add to that– old fashioned dust, dirt, insects, etc. which degrade “stealth”.
A lot of time and money has to go into maintaining its expensive anti-radar coated finish.
Stealth fighters and bombers are not undetectable. They can be shot down, as the US learned to its cost over Serbia in 1999.
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To complicate matters, the Russians have a new radar for stealth aircraft. And the Chinese have an even better one. Quantum radar. Which you can be sure the Russians will get the technology for. Such stuff is still under development, but you can be sure that it will working long before the F35 is cleared for combat.
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IMO, “stealth” ain’t what it used to be. And $1.3 trillion doesn’t buy air superiority. Come to think of it, a trillion dollars doesn’t seem to buy much of anything these days. The US is forcing its vassal states to buy its overpriced junk – F35s, Abrams, Patriot missiles, ATACAMS, NASAAMs, and the like — which in almost all cases they don’t need.
“Added value” means added problems and added expense.
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Let us keep in mind that the only country to invade Canada has been the US of A. Umm…at least 3 times.
The Saab Gripen would meet Canada’s needs for a fraction of the cost, with a boost for Canada’s manufacturing industry …but … whatever Massa’ says. We know Justin Trudeau likes black face, pretending to be a “house nigger, I suppose. Yeah, I know the “n” word is offensive. Which makes Trudeau all the more so.
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It’s an ugly expression. And so is Canadian foreign policy.
The profits made from slave states like Canada or the UK, won’t really pay e Joe America’s bills, although they may get the CEO of Lockheed Martin a new Ferrari. Even the New York Times is calling the F35 a “trillion dollar boondoggle”.
Remember: DEBT?
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The US never had to worry about paying back its loans when the Dollar was King, but now the kingdom quakes –dedollarization is proceeding slowly but surely—accelerating gradually as the US loses its twin economic wars with Russia and China and as the EU fails.
Let us keep in mind that the US no longer has the industrial or engineering base to keep up with the Russians and Chinese, not even to replace the weapons it sends Ukraine.
US loans there will eventually have to be paid for by the American public.
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Oh, Joe Taxpayer, why support a bankrupt country? Dump that country like moldy cheese and get something fresh.
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Still, most of the media still trumpet the superiority of American technology, which after all, won WWII didn’t it?
Oops. Sorry the Soviets won the war in Europe. And the US didn’t win the war in the Pacific against Japan as much as Japan lost it –making the same mistake that the Americans are making today – assuming that the today’s war is like yesterday’s.
Still, the Media buys into military industry’s hype. Just as it does Big Pharma’s. Maybe it’s all those shows about D-Day, Top Gun, etc, etc, which are re-assuring for Joe America in front of the TV, drinking beer and cuddling his 44 Magnum.
You must discount most of what you hear about the superiority of American weapons. The F35 is just one example. But almost everything that the US produces suffers from over-engineering, complexity, and impracticality.
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