It's starting to get expensive

[unhappycamper]

Pilots to Get Next-Gen Flight Suits
February 27, 2010
Northwest Florida Daily News

The new generation of Nomads will have a new generation of flight suits. Joint Strike Fighter pilot instructors were fitted for their new gear in Nomad Hall during a press conference.

Representatives from the suit and helmet manufacturers fielded questions. They shared the number of measurements taken to fit pilots into the gear and safety measures taken to make the suits. They also detailed features of everything, including the socks.

But they would not talk prices.

"It costs more than your house," said Bob Foote, chief technology officer of helmet manufacturer Vision Systems International.

Rumor had it the helmets cost about $250,000 each, but Foote would not confirm it.


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Could LCS lose its missile?

Even though the Navy is very proud that the littoral combat ship Freedom is underway right now in the Caribbean patrolling for smugglers, there are many parts of the LCS concept still in the works. The wham-o-dyne, helicopter-mounted, super-gun that will blow up mines, for example, is still under development, as are the Non Line Of Sight “precision attack missiles,” which are planned to give LCS ships a quick, extended ability to hit surface targets.

However, as reported by our colleague Kate Brannen, all is not well in NLOS land. Not only are the missiles doing poorly in live-fire tests, but as Brannen writes in the print edition of this week’s Defense News (on newsstands now!) they are proving to be much more expensive than planned. NLOS, which the Navy is developing with the Army, will cost $466,000 per round in 2011, according to Army budget documents.

“This is what happens when you try to buy too much under when the production line is not mature,” one congressional source told Brannen.

Elements within the Army are recommending the service’s top decision-makers back off NLOS, one of the survivors of the monster known as Future Combat Systems. What would that mean for the Navy? LCS planners are relying on NLOS as a way to defend against swarms of incoming small boats, which could mass and attack faster than the Freedom could handle with its 57mm main gun and twin 30-mm point-defense guns.

Stay tuned for more on the effect an Army NLOS scale-back would have on the Navy and LCS.



unhappycamper comment: $250 grand for a flight suit helmet seems to be a tad expensive. But $466,000 Non Line Of Sight “precision attack missiles” seems to be insane. The only question in my mind is when is the United States going to go into a full Soviet Union style meltdown.





http://weburbanist.com/2008/12/05/abandoned-deserted-building-town-city/

[Greyhound]

1. K&R.

*Sadly shakes head, again*

[Double T]

2. Wonder if official government hammers are going for thousands today.

We will never know.

[NecklyTyler]

4. Government hammers?

Sailors report footing bill for needs on ships

Chief Machinist’s Mate (SW/AW) Michael Seger was tired of his sailors being punished when they weren’t getting their work done on schedule. It happened over and over, and it wasn’t their fault, he said. They didn’t have the gear they needed to clean, paint spaces, or maintain their equipment by the command’s schedule.

So Seger took matters into his own hands. For years, first on the carrier Enterprise and then on the amphibious assault ship Nassau, Seger drove out to hardware stores and shopping centers to spend his own money on the stuff his sailors needed.

Isn't it comforting to know that our most powerful nuclear capable ships are being maintained by unqualified, uncertified, and possibly unsuitable tools purchased down at the local ACE Hardware store.

[baldguy]

5. In the early 90s I had a friend who flew a B-1.

One day he & his crew volunteered for a static display at a local airshow & I got to see his plane; I noticed that there was a lot of duct tape holding things like hydraulic lines & electrical connections in place.

[Double T]

6. So where is all the Pentagon budget going, mmmmm?

I become more disgusted with our government with each new day; pathetic doesn't even begin ti describe it.

[onethatcares]

3. who the hell are we gonna fight with that one?

the Chinese have already sold us the shovels they're gonna bury us with (available at your local Walmart @ 4.99)

For some reason I don't picture the Iranians or the Taliban attacking us on the open ocean or in Atlantic City with hundreds of small boats.

We are totally screwn as far as priorities go anymore.

Wage Peace, one fight at a time.