Posted on 03/17/2024 7:58:59 AM PDT by hardspunned
Maintenance costs have risen for many US weapons, including some crucial systems by Ukraine or likely to be deployed in a conflict with China.
In particular, operating and support costs for the M982 Excalibur — a GPS-guided 155-mm artillery shell supplied to Ukraine — nearly doubled between 2011 and 2022 to roughly $100,000 per shell, according to a Government Accountability Office report.
Such problems are baked into the military procurement system. The sticker price of a weapon, such as a jet fighter, only reflects a fraction of what it will cost to maintain that weapon over its lifetime. "Operating and support (O&S) costs historically account for approximately 70 percent of a weapon system's total life-cycle cost, which is the cost to operate and sustain the system from initial operations through the end of its life," GAO explained. "Included in the costs are repair parts, depot and field maintenance, contract services, engineering support, and personnel, among other things."
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Someone is wanting to make a profit. Joe Biden talks of Shrinkflation and his bag of potato chips needs to go into the Military Industrial Markets and find out who is charging $500 dollars for a $2. hammer.
That’s okay. We are only $200 Trillion in unpayable debt & the connected, inbred NeoCons will pick us clean on this. They are what matter.
$100,000 for one artillery shell! Holy Moly!
If Biden got out of the way of American oil and gas distribution, production and exploration, Russia and Iran would not be able to afford their foreign adventures. Trump proved that when he was President.
America’s government has gone insane, fed by printed, fiat money and massive debt.
The national debt just blew past $34.5T.
The unfunded liabilities are about $214T.
Obscene debt. Somebody’s making a lot of money.
“Cha-ching, Cha-ching, Cha-ching for the MIC oligarchs. Fortunately, in Ukraine, this is less a problem as the ammo is expended and weapons destroyed prior to needing much maintenance.”
^This
The MIC is wasting hundreds of billions a year. The Russians are repurposing millions of dumb aerial bombs from the last century into horrific, precision glide bombs at a couple of thousand dollars per bomb.
It is totally insane and completely irresponsible.
Both parties fuel the debt monster.
Surely Nikita “We Will Bury You” Bidenskyyyyyy has a lot of “cost of military weapons” jokes written by his Gen Zero aides that were left over from his We Will Bury You speech at his SOTU Show that he could share with us.
Wars of choice are a time-honored tool of tyrants to impoverish and enslave their own people since the costs of war impoverished and enslaved their peoples - to the tyrant’s advantage.
$100K a pop and Ukraine pot-shotting them off like they’re bottle rockets. Why do they care, Ukraine is never going to pay anybody back.
om the manufacturer to the user - how many middlemen does it pass through to up the cost?? And how many have close contacts or relatives in Congress or the Biden family??
Are these honest increases in costs ,or the usual gouging of the military because no one is looking??
We use incredibly expensive technology to defend against incredibly cheap and effective weapons. That’s simply an unsustainable way to operate.
But it does benefit certain politically connected people so nothing is going to change. Its only taxpayer money after all.
> $100,000 for one artillery shell! Holy Moly!
Every shell is a subtraction from building a sidewalk or paving a road somewhere in the USA.
Exclusive: Russia producing three times more artillery shells than US and Europe for Ukraine
No analogy is perfect. However…
Nazi Germany valued quality over quantity. They made relatively few expensive, complicated tanks.
The Soviet Union valued quantity over quality. They made many cheap, basic tanks.
And we all know how that little dust-up ended.
The overriding concern in DC when designing, building and maintaining a weapon system is the profit margins for the MIC oligarchs, not the effectiveness of the system for the poor dumb grunt in the field who’s life depends on it.
The US Government is being run like a Criminal Enterprise. It is actually just that.
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