Wednesday, March 04, 2009

F-22 vs X-47B


It's budget time and the military budget is being "cut". That means they are only getting a 4% increase rather than the "traditional" 9% increase. This puts our country in danger claim the conservatives. That's right. The country (us) that spends almost half the money spent on defense in the world will be in danger if we don't spend even more.

The F-22 fighter jet, the best fighter aircraft on Earth. But who is it going to be used against. Who are we currently fighting that even has an airforce. An F-22 fighter jet costs about 500 million each. That's 500 five year medical research grants. The total cost of 30 F-22 aircraft would zero out the New York State budget deficit.

Ok, say you convince me that we need a high performing fighter aircraft. You want high performance, then you need an unmanned fighter jet that can handle many times the g forces that a human can handle. Oops, don't need the F-22? Then we need to start questioning whether we need an airforce and fighter pilots. Any kid that can play a computer game could probably fly an unmanned aircraft.

Let's not fall for these stupid "you're putting the country in danger games". We need to cut spending or at least spend what money we have in a wiser way.

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