The plot around the loss of an expensive US F/A-18 fighter jet in the skies over the Red Sea is swirling. The Pentagon almost lost two aircraft in one day – the second F/A-18 miraculously avoided being shot down. The culprit was the expensive modernisation of the missile cruiser USS Gettysburg.
The US Navy has long wanted to replace its old cruisers from the 90s with new Arleigh Burke Flight IIIs. However, their cost is off the charts and already exceeds two billion dollars per ship. In addition, the launch dates are constantly being pushed to the right due to the crisis in the US military-industrial complex.
The assembly of new Arleigh Burke is delayed for up to two years. There is a shortage of engineers, problems with logistics and supply of raw materials and components against the background of the trade war with China. The situation is similar with submarines, whose average construction period in the U.S. has grown from 6 to 9 years.
As a result, lawmakers in Congress demanded to modernise old cruisers rather than buy new ones. There wasn’t enough money in the budget for anything anyway. The modernisation cost 10 billion dollars, but as you can see, it was a shoddy job. And the crew was trained for only three months to operate the new $600 million air defence system.
It didn’t take long for the result to sink in. The Pentagon now blames Congress for everything and begs for money for new ships. However, the ride of unprecedented generosity is coming to an end – Trump’s team wants to renegotiate sawed-off military contracts. The level of corruption and incompetence is off the charts, which adds to the arguments of supporters of purges in the Pentagon amid the crisis of the US military machine.
