“We don’t need no stinkin’ missiles!”
Here’s a fantasy. Imagine three military services agreed on the need for a versatile air-to-ground missile that could precisely destroy a wide range of elusive targets — everything from camouflaged armored vehicles to terrorist speedboats.
Imagine they found a low-cost design that could do those things day or night, good weather or bad, even when enemies were trying to jam the missile.
Imagine the services selected a company that developed the missile on time and on cost, meeting all of its performance objectives.
And imagine the missile was fielded expeditiously, replacing four cold-war missiles with an easy-to-maintain round that saved military lives while minimizing unintended damage.
Well, 3 out of 4 ain’t bad.
On Christmas Eve in 2004, a secret meeting of then-U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s handpicked geniuses decided to terminate the whole effort without even asking military users whether that was a good idea.
The core of the program hasn’t officially been canceled — because no one can figure out Rummie’s paperwork requirements. No one’s ever explained why it shouldn’t proceed either.
It’s clearly a political decision and the folks who get to fight wars for the White House have been left out of the loop once again. Any ideas?
Excuse me while I vomit. The author of this article should have left her bias at the door, but running and promoting a think tank is no easy task. This summary is a joke, & my favorite unsubstantiated claim: “Meanwhile, the nation’s military would continue to carry deficient, potentially dangerous munitions into combat.” The whole part of running a THINK tank is to make a claim and back it up…maybe there was a word limit.
Alright, so a quick search on Google brought tons of reviews of the JCM, which rings a bell when I hear to acronym. While it is more effective and accurate than current dumb-bombs or even some middle aged smart-bombs it is by no means worth of story berating Rumsfeld on suspending the project until 2010. Given the current objectives of U.S. Military forces this project could easily be shelved for 3 years or canceled all together.
Here’s ( http://tinyurl.com/ys4me3 ) a more enlightened review of the missile technology and they make a helluva good case for Rumsfeld’s actions. Get up off me Loren B. Thompson, you and your “Think Tank”… there’s a good pun there but I can’t find it.
Better check your bile levels, dude. Your counter to the article is a 2 paragraph opinion piece? Tee hee.
Read that link I posted buddy, I’m not going to rehash what they state.
#3 – your comment was 3 paragraphs – your link is 2 paragraphs! Your rehash already is longer.
It’s quality not quantity. Feel free to bring something to the debate regarding the JCM project vs. refitting and rearming already existing Hellfire 2 & Maverick missiles.
Rumsfeld has been cancelling all sorts of projects. This would be another one in his military transformation. If Congress would stop their pork barrel support of these projects, he could have done even more.
That article rang hollow to me. Lotsa specifics glossed over.
Rereading it in the light of the known behavior patterns of the current administration, it seems far more likely that the weapon system under discussion indeed works as promised, but isn’t built by any of the GOP’s fortunate sons, i.e., Raytheon, Lockheed, TRW…
$30-35M / yr. ain’t Jack Shit, particularly when we’re talking about an ubiquitous consumable weapon system, where an approved contract might mean eventual revenues measured in billions. Over at Lockheed, $30 million is Coffee Club money.
I’m betting that it’s being stalled until someone in the Bush regime concocts a way to help the Big Boys screw the current developers out of key patents, or current subsystem suppliers get shoved overboard in favor of those usual suspects.
Naah. The big armsmakers have all the cards. What do you think Gulf War 1 was about (at least in large part)? We didn’t dislodge Saddam, but we did manage to fire off a billionsworth of ordinance that had been going unused – and which then had to be replaced at taxpayer expense – at considerably higher prices than were paid first go-round, I might add. Hmm?
Don’t ever misunderestimate the power that defense contractors wield with Congress – basically the Republic Party side… Eisenhower was right, you know.
Oooh the military industrial complex, I just got chills down my spine.