Re:A Cold War Legacy: The Decline of Stealth
by EdwardDiego on Tuesday January 20, 2015 @02:02PM
(#8918755)
> unfortunately now you have two R+D programs to pay for instead of one, and lower economies of scale and the labor and logistics costs will be higher to maintain two separate platforms.
I'm pretty sure the US government is paying for a bunch of disparate R & D projects already.
My guess is stealth astroturfing from the military industrial complex. Propose something with a higher overall system/platform cost, then sell it to the unknowing public as a cost cutting measure.
An optimized strategy for saving money while still enforcing imperial control over the colonies would be massive automation and economy of scale via drones for the front lines. Rather than making a survivable $500M bomber that will only maybe a hundred combat missions, ship 5000 $100K drones/cruise missiles that will net 5000 combat missions for the same price, even if 90% the drones are shot down you still come out ahead.