IBD:
Two more weapons systems, including the Navy’s premier attack missile, have been targeted for elimination by the administration years before their usefulness ends or replacements are ready.
How ironic that Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Barack Obama used the Tomahawk missile he now seeks to scrap as his weapon of choice when on March 19, 2011, he launched Operation Odyssey Dawn and fired 112 Tomahawks at Libyan targets to enforce a U.N.-backed no fly-zone in support of Libyan rebels fighting Moammar Gadhafi.
Future presidents will not be able to carry such a big stick. Along with the Hellfire air-to-ground attack missile, the Tomahawk is considered by the administration to be one of those Cold War weapons no longer needed.
Under Obama’s budget proposals, the Navy, which as recently as last year had plans to buy 980 more Tomahawks, the primary cruise missile used throughout the fleet, will see purchases drop from 196 last year to just 100 in 2015. The number will then drop to zero in 2016.
The U.S. used 220 Tomahawks in the fight with Libya, according to the Washington Free Beacon. With the States using about 100 Tomahawks annually, our inventory will be depleted around 2018. No future purchases are planned, and no replacement is in the pipeline.
“It doesn’t make sense,” Seth Cropsey, director of the Hudson Institute’s Center for American Seapower, told the Free Beacon. The move, he said, is “like running a white flag up on a very tall flagpole and saying, ‘We are ready to be walked on.'”
If someone were trying to “reduce the U.S. ability to shape events” in the world, Cropsey added, “they couldn’t find a better way than depriving the U.S. fleet of Tomahawks. It’s breathtaking.”
These moves are the latest in a series of cancellations of major weapons systems and plans that in the past have included abandonment of missile defense and planned sites in Poland and the Czech Republic and the cancellation of future orders of the F-22 Raptor, a stealth fighter that many consider to be the best air-superiority fighter ever built.
We have noted administration plans to cut U.S. troop levels to pre-World War II levels. Army Chief of Staff Ray Odierno, the former top U.S. general in Iraq, testified last September before the House Armed Services Committee that “these reductions will put at substantial risk our ability to conduct even one sustained major combat operation.”
@rich wheeler:
So how come the majority of the 20 largest current overall political donors favor the Democrats?
Rich, your comment about believing in flying saucers! see this:
http://dailycaller.com/2014/04/03/bill-clinton-on-aliens-if-we-were-visited-some-day-i-wouldnt-be-surprised/
Tell them willie boy is here for them!
@Redteam: There you go. I rest my case. Nothing is certain.
Conspiracy theories rule
BTW How did Taliban know Seal Team 6 would be responding to their ambush? They got lucky, F–K EM.
@Kraken: I was gonna say– because they love to back the winners.
Actual count looks like 11 D 8-R 1-NA. Hardly decisive.
@RICH WHEELER:
So how come six years into Obama’s presidency the vanishing of the middle class has accelerated?
http://news.yahoo.com/more-americans-see-middle-class-status-slipping-155155857–finance.html
@Kraken: Wide divergence in cited polls.
One thing is certain–THE RICH ARE GETTING RICHER AND THE POOR–WELL YOU KNOW.
Richard Wheeler
you say the rich are getting richer,
no, IT”S BECAUSE THEY KEEP THE MONEY THEY WOULD OTHERWIZE INVEST<
BECAUSE THEY ARE BOMBARDED BY OBAMA"S GOONS TO SUCK MONEY FROM THEM,
SO THEY SAVE FOR THEIR OWN FAMILY,
THEY CANNOT TRUST THE CLIMATE AROUND OF GIMMY GIMMY,
you didn't built it. OBAMA OWN AMERICA AND ALL THE BUSINESSES,
NOW HE IS GIVING LAND TO CHINA SO TO GET MORE MONEY,
HEY THAT LAND DOESN'T BELONG TO OBAMA, IT BELONG TO THE PEOPLE,
GET OFF OUR LAND
Kraken
THEY WANT TO SAVE TAX, AND ARE AFRAID OF OBAMA NEXT MOVE,
@Kraken, #98:
In the event of unexpected delays, Tomahawk production could always be extended when and if the need became apparent. What sense does it make to commit to extending production of a soon-to-be outdated weapon system before there’s any reason to do so?
Sorry, but that’s not an answer to the question. That’s simply another repetition of your evasive statement. You don’t seem to want to acknowledge the simple fact that refraining from making a contractual commitment to buy excess inventory now isn’t an irrevocable decision that couldn’t be changed later , should the need arise. The need being any unforeseen delays in the development of the replacement system.
What we’re witnessing here is an example of the right’s astonishing ability not to hear anything that they don’t want to hear. They routinely tune out any conclusions or information that isn’t compatible with what they want to believe.
@RICH WHEELER:
wonder why the Dimocratic Governors Assn donated $7,653,529 but no one knows which party they donated to. If you were guessing Rich, which would you guess?
I imagine they might have some Muslims on the inside.
@Greg:
Not a valid argument, Greg, buying 2 or 3 hundred extra Tomahawk or hellfire missiles would not be excess. They are excellent weapons and there will be many situations where they can be used in the next few years. They wouldn’t be excess inventory.
now who’s the top guy IN FORT HOOD?
are you so dam arrogant as to leave everybody unarmed,
specialy after the first lunatic muslim killed 13 military,
as a psychiatrist trying to teach the sick soldiers NOT HOW TO HEAL BUT HIS PERSONAL BOOK,
you commander didn’t get it yet?
how much more muslim or those who sympatise with them or the sick people will be able to go in open door, shoot the braves unarmed wtf are you a real commander or just a show off commander,
there was suppose to be constant arm military more than one, 3 of them, for those many thousands of
AMERICAN BEST BRAVES TO BE PROTECTED, at the door , all the doors ARMED to the theets,
ready to shoot on site, and all who come should know it, AS IT WOULD BE LOUD AND CLEAR ,
DO YOU COMMANDER WANT THE JOB? HOW COME IT WAS NOT DONE,ARE YOU SO SURE OF YOURSELF, TO HAVE IGNORE THAT IMPORTANT NEED, TO PROTECT THE TREASURES OF AMERICA,
DIDN’T THEY BLED ENOUGH FOR YOU, YOU WHO HAVE AN OFFICE IN THERE SECURE,
WELL THE WHOLE MILITARY SHOULD BE AS SECURE AS YOU,
THINK BEYOUND YOUR NOSE COMMANDER YOU SCREW UP AGAIN THAT IS TWICE, NO THAT IS THREE TIME AND TWICE THIS YEAR,
OR GET A NEW TRAINNING,
HEY IF THEY CANNOT CARRY GUN LET THEM CARRY A BOMB,
AND BLOW ANY WHO REFUSE TO BE SEARCH AT THE DOOR,
Redteam
i would not be surprise to have an infiltration of the most elusive of SEALTEAM 6,
THEY ARE PLAYING THE DANGEROUS GAME AND IT DID GOT MANY OF THEM KILLED
BEFORE, DID ANYONE FORGOT ALREADY? OR ARE SO SURE OF THEIR POWER TO RISK MORE DEATH OF THE BRAVES AFTER BENGHASI DEATHS OF MANY,
THE TEAM SHOULD BE ON GUARD FOR THEIR BROTHER, NUMBER ONE AFTER GOD
@Redteam, #111:
Tactical Tomahawks presently cost $153.3 million each. Another 300 would be around half-a-billion dollars.
I’m guessing that if Obama had committed to purchasing more now—with the current inventory projected to extend until the successor is rolled out, and always having the option of making such an order later if the successor is delayed—his opponents would be howling instead about his horrible judgement and profligate spending.
AND GET THE IRANIEN OUT OF THE UN,
THAT FUCKER WAS IN THE HOSTAGE TAKING AND IS STILL A DANGEROUS EXTREMIST,
GET HIM OUT AND HANG HIM,
THERE SHOULDN’T BE ANY HESITATION, OR THE ADMINISTRATION IS WITH THEM, AND TAKE THE RESPONSIBILITY,
OF AFTER SHOCK SHAKING THEM,
@Redteam: #95
I only mentioned the third-hand smoke, since smoking was mentioned.
I am neutral on the smoking ban. This is something I think that the Joint Chiefs of Staff should decide. I wouldn’t have a problem with banning smokers from JOINING the military.
@RICH WHEELER: #96
The USA has catered to the Saudis for several presidencies. Right after 9-11, Bush let several high ranking Saudi officials leave the USA. If I remember correctly, 9 of the 9-11 terrorists were from Saudi Arabia, but Saudi Arabia was never implicated in any GOVERNMENT investigation. Private investigations have.
The birthplace sign was somebody else’s idea. I just added the comments. I had never thought about it before the sign, but the sign made me thing about this: ALL other presidents have signs saying they were born there, or grew up there, or other things about them, EXCEPT obama. Why isn’t ANY place claiming obama for ANYTHING?
@Smorgasbord:
I have a problem with banning people doing legitimate things from certain activities. I’m stretching a little, but would it be ok to ban people that drink alcohol or smoke pot from joining the military. What about people that drive their cars above the speed limit? How about people that own a gun? What about married people? What about people that believe in God?
As long as an activity is legal people shouldn’t be penalized for doing that activity (other than taxes, etc)
I think it’s obvious, they don’t know where he was born so they are not going to be made fools of. I don’t personally know or care where he was born. I do know that if his parents are who he says they are, that he is not a natural born citizen of the US and therefore not eligible to be the president.
@Redteam: #118
My concern is for the illnesses and deaths from smoking, and for the increased medical costs the taxpayers will have to pay for. All that has to be done is have congress let the Food and Drug Administration regulate tobacco, and it would be banned. congress could at least ban any dangerous things added to tobacco. Right now, the tobacco industry can put anything they want in tobacco products, and they have had many years of trying to find more addictive stuff to put in their products.
Redteam
DID YOU SEE THE CROWD , some start to talk loud,
on the street< and one guy run across to the other one and slash his face one ear to the other
with a broken bottle AND RUNAWAY,
THE WOUNDED SERIOUSLY IS A MARINE,
THEY MADE THEIR WAR AND COME BACK TO ONE IN THEIR OWN LAND,
I HEARD HE WAS NOT SURE TO SURVIVE,
IT WAS CAUGHT ON CAMERA,
WHAT A MESS, IF HE WOULD HAVE BEEN ARMED THE MARINE COULD HAVE PREVENT IT AND SHOOT THE GUY RUNNING AT HIM, BEFORE, THERE WAS ENOUGH TIME FOR HIM TO SHOOT THE GUY
RUNNING AT HIM FROM ACROSS THE OTHER SIDE,