In his "farewell speech" when leaving the White house, Ike warned us that the greatest danger to US may be the "military/industrial complex."
Here is IMHO a great example of its costly stupidity when US is going bankrupt:
“… The stealthy, guided-missile Zumwalt that's taking shape at Bath Iron Works is the biggest destroyer ever built for the U.S. Navy. The low-to-the-water warship will feature a wave-piercing hull, composite deckhouse, electric drive propulsion, advanced sonar, missiles, and powerful guns that fire rocket-propelled warheads as far as 100 miles. It's also longer and heavier than existing destroyers — but will have half the crew because of automated systems.
{Current projected cost (before the typical factor of two costs over runs) is}$3.8 billion apiece, according to the Navy's latest proposed budget. Including research and development, the cost grows to $7 billion apiece, said Winslow Wheeler, director of the Straus Military Reform Project at the Center for Defense Information in Washington.
Because of cost, the originally envisioned 32 ships dipped to 24 and then seven. Eventually, program was truncated to just three. …”{Billy T predicts there will only be one of these unaffordable “white elephants.”}
Quote from:
http://news.yahoo.com/cutting-edge-navy-warship-being-built-maine-063753789.html
Billy T comment: Remember the “Spanish armada” –several dozen of the world´s largest and most technologically advanced warships – bigger and better canon, more sail, etc. Well the faster British warships, much smaller and costing about 10% of the Spanish ships, sent most of the Armada to the floor of the English channel but a few did get back to Spain.
If I wanted to sink this monster and had many willing to die in the effort, I would repeat what the Brits did to the Spanish Armada: I.e. with at least three dozen very high speed hydroplaning small speed boats simultaneously attacking with considerable, computer controlled random weave as they close with the monster and at least 100 pounds of plastic HE on in their bows with detonators triggered by contact ramming blow a few holes at or below the water line.
Or perhaps attack while ship is re-fueling like this:
“…On October 12, 2000, the USS Cole, an American Naval Destroyer, entered the harbor of Aden, Yemen to refuel. After the mooring of the ship to a buoy, the refueling operation began. Approximately 45 minutes into the refueling, a small ship, described as either a Zodiac-type rubber craft or a fiberglass boat, placed itself alongside the Cole and blew up. The resulting explosion tore an 40 by 40 foot hole in the side of the destroyer, causing casualties among the ship's crew. The casualties total 17 dead and an additional 39 wounded. …”
Or even just a few dedicated frog men dropped into the sea ahead of the Zumwalt from a “fishing boat” that is crossing the path of the Zumwalt a mile or two in front of the moving, highly automatic, undermanned, Zumwalt. If the Zumwalt should unexpectedly change course, no problem: another “fishing boat” following the first picks up the frog men and you try again in a few days.
Even primitive N. Korea may have reconance satellites in polar orbits before the Zumwalt is in the South China Sea. China will certainly continuous know the exact location of the Zumwalt to less than 100m error. China has more submarines than the US does and keeps most of them near China – at least 10 times denser surveillance by sub per square kilometer than US can do, not to mention China´s vast network of surveillance satellites.
China has also demonstrated, according to US Naval intelligence (assuming that´s not Oximoro) the ability to terminally guide a “ballistic” missile to its target. I.e. The US navy thinks even a weaving aircraft carrier up to 1800 miles from China could be sunk by this system even if the warhead is just conventional HE.
SUMMARY: The Zumwalt is a terrible waste of about10 billion dollars, IMHO. Ike had a point.
America´s race to the bottom is being lead by the US military!