Hmmm...care to point to any? I've found articles discussing giving the Global Hawk (which has zero attack capabilities, and would be an easy target to shoot down), but nothing else large that could carry anything remotely close to being able to take out an aircraft carrier.
My point is that there are really only a couple of nations with any kind of sufficient ability to even make the attempt. And thus, it's hardly a "soft target". For all other conflicts, nothing is going to get close, and now you're able to project air power over the enemy for hundreds of miles.
Sounds like you've never dealt with government contracts. I have, and been in the industry for nearly 32 years. Requirements creep is common in DoD, especially in long, multi-year contracts. You're frequently dealing with young officers who're still wet behind the ears, and wouldn't recognize a Shall statement if you hit them with it. Not to say that there's never blame on the contractors side, but I see posts here way too often about the evils of contractors, by people speaking out of their anus.
Easy target? Tell us when one gets hit. In the mean time, where would you like to launch your drones from if there's not base nearby? Some drones are rather large.
Just to be fair, can anyone name a U.S. aircraft that was delivered ontime and at or below budget since the U2 or SR71? This is SOP, not that it's right.
If you know the material is classified, even if it's unmarked, you're still in a world of hurt. Now clearly, that's not the same as what you said, but it's not the same as ex post facto.
"The Mayans were wrong about 2012"
There's a surprise. Standard issue end-of-the-world religious prediction turns out to be incorrect. Who'd have thought eh?
Except that they weren't wrong.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2...
Guess I'm just a jaded rich (depending upon your definition, definitely not 1% though) white guy. I haven't done a MiG yet, but might. Some things I have ridden just for the experience:
Submarine
Bullet train to Kyoto
Helicopter(s) over Alcatraz, and up to an Alaskan glacier
Hot air balloon
Glider
Olympic Bobsled (Park City, Utah)
NASCAR (Richard Petty Experience, Las Vegas Motor Speedway)
Private planes to Nagasaki and Hiroshima
Senator's don't count as civilians.
DSM has been highly criticized to the point where it's hardly credible reference material.
When I was a kid, we had to walk 1,000,000,000,000,000 miles to school....
At the speed of light, that academic journey would had taken 170 years. But I suppose you have a good enough excuse for not knowing it
It was worse when we had to do it uphill both ways!
Never mind that none of these programs have stopped any attack or plot.
That you know of. And, for the record, I'm not a fan of collecting against citizens w/o a warrant.
I am certain that should one of those programs (NSA or TSA) ever stop a terrorist plot, even by accident, such success would be trumpeted for years to come. The vague and general references to hundreds of terrorist plots is an indication that there is nothing real to talk about.
Not if it's going to reveal something about their methods. When you know the methods, it becomes much less of a problem to avoid being collected.
Why put trust into peer review when we're doing such a poor job of it now?
http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21588069-scientific-research-has-changed-world-now-it-needs-change-itself-how-science-goes-wrong
Never mind that none of these programs have stopped any attack or plot.
That you know of. And, for the record, I'm not a fan of collecting against citizens w/o a warrant.
Okay, so I still don't know which schools you're talking about. And, can you point to any kind of metric that backs up your claim?
Living on Earth may be expensive, but it includes an annual free trip around the Sun.
