White House's $17 billion helicopter fleet

[Vigilante]

Yahoo News ^

The Pentagon has awarded a contract to begin development of the most expensive helicopters ever made. Each helicopter will probably cost at least $400 million. The entire project, to build at least 23 helicopters, has been estimated to eventually cost between $10 billion to $17 billion. By comparison, the project could pay the combined defense budgets of Finland, Norway, and Sweden for one year ($16.9 billion). The passengers for this enormously expensive helicopter fleet? The President of the United States and his entourage. The first president to fly regularly in helicopters was Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower faced a two-hour commute to...

 

[rdean]

Look at that. It all started in 2003. Didn't see that one coming.

The $13 Billion Presidential Helicopters We Scrapped and Sold to Canada

 

[KissMy]

The Republicans will attack if you hint at cutting military entitlements. Just look at the F22 & F35 disasters. $80 billion & none have or will ever see combat. If they get wet, they are ruined. They require 17 hours of maintenance for every hour of flight. This was all known by the military in the 1970's before before they were made, yet the fucking government went ahead & wasted all that money on their favorite cronies.

Parties are like tribes & election outcomes are about which tribe gets the money.

 

[Moonglow]

Darn I wanted one of the old ones for home use...

 

[Moonglow]

Where is our Star Wars ICBM interceptor satellites at???

 

[PaintMyHouse]

Yahoo News ^

The Pentagon has awarded a contract to begin development of the most expensive helicopters ever made. Each helicopter will probably cost at least $400 million. The entire project, to build at least 23 helicopters, has been estimated to eventually cost between $10 billion to $17 billion. By comparison, the project could pay the combined defense budgets of Finland, Norway, and Sweden for one year ($16.9 billion). The passengers for this enormously expensive helicopter fleet? The President of the United States and his entourage. The first president to fly regularly in helicopters was Dwight Eisenhower. Eisenhower faced a two-hour commute to...

Dude, I built planes that cost a billion each, 20 years ago. Let's mush on and discuss real money eh?

 

[candycorn]

What is the thesis of the OP? I think the amount is absurd.

We spend billions on defense and it turns out that we're incredibly vulnerable to guys with box cutters on airplanes who were not exactly worried about tradecraft. I recalled hearing stories about birds taking down B-1 Bombers. Not sure about the choppers used in the OBL takedown but we do know one crashed without any help from the targets. What do you think are the odds are that we don't hear about every f-up?

Anyway, I'm sure the $17B includes all of the incredibly complex communications crap, anti-attack crap, counter-attack crap, crap on top of crap on top of all that crap. For what exactly...a 5 mile ride to the airport? There is scant little the President can do in a chopper that he can't do in the back of a limo. Perhaps get away from a hot spot quicker but every Presidential trip has a motorcade on the back end anyway so putting one on the front end doesn't exactly reduce the danger incurred with every trip.

When you're 17T in debt, 17B is not going to make a difference; of course it's that type of thinking that allowed us to get to 17T

Oh, and by the way. If the PRESIDENT needs a chopper for a legitimate reason where AF1 is impractical...it's not as if he could not get his hands on one from the Marines, Navy, Army, Coast Guard, or maybe even the Air Force. Does the USAF have choppers?