Air Force requests bailout funding to continue war on fiscal responsibility

My father is a retired fighter pilot that flew for many years in the United States Air Force. He'd be the first, no wait, my mom would be the first and he'd be the second to tell you that flying jets in combat or in military conflicts is incredibly dangerous, fighter pilots have an incredibly high mortality rate, and they risk a massive amount of bureaucratic ire if they lose their multi-million dollar fighter plane. A "good" example of this is when Tom Cruise "Maverick" loses his F-14 in Top Gun and has to stand in front of a review board for all of 3o seconds before he is forced to continue flying F-14's as often as possible. The truth is, Northrup-Grumman would be getting a bill for $140 million, all because of a faulty firing pin in the cockpit hood.
ANYWAY
Apparently in Washington there is significant pressure on Obama to increase military spending. In case you have been in a cave, the U.S. Air Force has quietly built 180 F-22 fighter planes in the last several years. The F-22 is the Air Force's answer to the question "but what if the Cold War warms back up?" At $150 million a piece, it is also one of the costliest non-nuclear armed jets in the air. The 180 F-22's have so far clocked a total of zero hours of combat time, though they've been in service since before 2001.
Gregg Easterbrook:

But Air Force flyboy types love the F-22 because it looks seriously zoomy and is the sole fighter ever built that can sustain supersonic speed for long periods. Members of Congress from districts where the plane's components are built love the very fact that the airplane is so costly, about $150 million per additional copy -- if only it cost a lot more! Last June, Gates fired the Air Force chief of staff and Air Force secretary, an unprecedented disciplinary act for a Republican defense secretary, because Air Force top brass acted more interested in obtaining F-22s for service prestige than in supplying drones to assist U.S. forces fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. But Air Force leadership is not excited by drones. If anything, Air Force leadership is worried that drone aircraft will soon put flyboys out of business. (Look up the X-47 in Wikipedia; not only is it pilot-less but it's a Navy idea.) The blue-suit F-22 faction is staging a whispering campaign on Capitol Hill that Obama will be seen as weak unless he buys more superexpensive Cold War fighters. George W. Bush wasted huge amounts on the defense budget; Obama must prove he's tough by wasting huge amounts, too!

It'd be a great idea for Obama to listen to Secretary Gates, who seems to be doing a remarkably good job, considering who appointed him.
As an engineer and a boy who grew up going to air shows, I love fighter planes. But I love fighter pilots more, and I'd much prefer they fly a UAV from the safety of a bunker control station where the missiles don't kill them.


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