For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost

For want of a nail, the shoe was lost;
For want of a shoe, the horse was lost;
For want of a horse, the rider was lost;
For want of a rider, the battle was lost;
For want of a battle, the kingdom was lost,
And all for the want of a horseshoe nail.

 

My last post on the US Navy’s problems with the Ford and the Abe carriers was entitled for “For the Want of a Nail”.  It was intended to be humorous. But there is a serious aspect to this, which should be explored.

The Abraham Lincoln’s design dates back to 1982.

In the case of the Ford, steel was cut in 2005.

Problems with both the Ford and the Abe supercarriers are long-standing design and engineering issues. Every effort and billions of dollars have been spent to upgrade and install the latest and most advanced electronics and systems.

Yes, and all the comforts of home—except for sanitation and potable water .

 

For want of a nail…

This is a systemic problem which afflicts American military culture – if you can call it that. More correctly, waste is a result of a budgetary minefield created by corporate greed.

I am sure you have seen reports like these:

C-17 Soap Dispensers:

Boeing overcharged nearly 8,000%

Aircraft Coffee Cups:

$1,300 per unit for reheatable coffee cups,

Helicopter Knobs:

A $47,000 charge for a helicopter screen control knob.

Valves for Apache Helicopters:

Overpriced by 40%.

Raw Materials & Components:

$640 toilet seats and $74,000 ladders.

Tactical Gear:

The Onyx Exoskeleton $30,000 per unit.

The F-35

The most expensive military project in history, plagued by cost overruns and still a boondoggle, sometimes delivered without radars

Patriot Missile System:

Significant overcharging by RTX and unable to live up to advertising

C-17 Globemaster III

An 8,000% markup— Is it worth it? It is designed for really heavy loads – with a lot of work done on the undercarriage, so it can land on unpaved runways. However, its operability depends on the soil under the runway, not the undercarriage. The aircraft is too heavy.

Too often, military products do not live up to their advertising. But the media trumpet the advertising as truth.

This, however, is the problem with the US. Everything is advertising. Puffery, as Dmitry Orlov calls it.

Did the US upgrade its presence in the ME really?

Is it prepared for war, really? We have seen the trailer but not the show.

Carriers

Fast forward and the Houthis showed just how vulnerable carriers can be.

 

Amazing what a little ingenuity can do!

Yes, a carrier’s destroyer screen can shoot down drones and cruise missiles and even the Houthi’s home-made ballistic missiles. But the much-touted Aegis destroyer has only 90 to 96 vertical launch cells.

The Iranians can launch 100s of sophisticated drones and cruise missiles, exhausting the destroyer’s supplies and forcing them to flee back to base – along with the carrier, of course. Good, since the sailors get to take a crap — finally.

Larry on the F35

 

All very good, although I noticed many of his commenters quibbling about the numbers. Whatever — it is an excellent article. And, of course, opinion is divided as to the effectiveness of Iranian air defense – except that there is no credible evidence that the Israelis dared aircraft penetration raids into Iran, apparently using standoff weapons from outside Iranian airspace.

But for me, Caine is irrelevant and the real issues are again design and engineering problems that occur when a government works for corporations rather than the reverse.

Keep in mind that the design of the F35 actually dates back to 2001—and now— two and a half decades later — still  hasn’t been debugged. That tells you that the consortium that built this aircraft never cared if it actually worked — just if it had all the newest bells and whistles and could make them money endlessly.

Too expensive to use. Too expensive to lose

Maintenance

Software & Hardware Upgrades:

Technical Backlog:

Weapons

Stealth:

Maintaining stealth coatings is difficult especially under combat conditions, in extreme weather and at sea. It is also expensive.

Engines:

Cost Overruns:

 

The BuildUp that wasn’t

The F35s deployed here have the same low operability rates (50%) as elsewhere —with half grounded due to maintenance issues, according to some reports despite air force and MIC denials.

While stealth coatings have been improved—heat sand, dust, and coastal humidly still degrade them, which is why the Israelis check very F35 after every flight and are constantly grounding aircraft .

Result?

Out of 10 aircraft, only 4 or 5 are going to be really mission capable. The US has 50 F35s in the ME. If it’s luck,y 25 will be flyable at any given time. Each can carry two subsonic AGMs internally.

Israel has 48 F35s so that means probably 24 available at any given time.

Of course, we don’t know how good Iranian air defenses are. Nor how bad. The Western assumption is that they are not up to American standards – except that those standards, as I have indicated, are questionable. The US sneak attack on Venezuela doesn’t tell you much other that air defenses don’t work when they are still in boxes, with everyone on holiday.

Russia and China have surpassed the US in most military technologies – they simply have more engineers, and the military industrial companies work for the government –not the other way around. They don’t waste money on things that don’t work.

You will notice that both Russia and China have been purging military command in anti-corruption drives.

What they call corruption, the US calls “business”. The US military could do with an “acid flush”.

Cat Defense

 

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