I was being facetious with the training comment. [rant] But I wouldn't put it past them. If someone had it in his budget, I'm willing to bet, coming close to the end of the FY he was figuring ways to burn the money. Wait until September and the spending frenzy will be full bore. If they were hauling cargo, do you suppose they had a back haul or would just dead head on the return? If they were hauling cargo, I bet it could have been done cheaper by commercial.Bullseye wrote:Yep, we have plenty of spare money lying around for such a huge formation of aircraft in training. Not like we have any money issues with the sequestration going on like government workers being furloughed, cancellation of tours at the W.H., military deployments being scaled way back, or anything like that. A C-130J, which all twenty are said to have been, runs at little over $14,000 per flight hour. The mission started in Texas, went half way across the country before I saw them and they were still headed north at that time, so they weren't finished flying the "training mission". Seventeen trillion and climbing.
R,
Bullseye
Sequestration, IMO, is a bad political joke made worse by political opportunism. Spending increases at 6-8% per year and that, in gov speak, is 0 increase in spending. Sequestration takes 2%, so the increase is a bit less and that is the end of the world and civilization as we know it? Dear Leader is on a $100 million booddoogle to Afrca and he doesn't have the money for White House tours? A 2% cut in spending stops DOD? How about cutting back a bit on the $50/gallon biodiesel in the green fuels fiasco?
Waste, fraud and abuse runs 10+% of federal spending. We hear a lot about it. Know of anyone doing much about it other than making splashy news stories?
As far as cutbacks in military. That was coming budget woes or not. It is in the Democrat DNA to cut the military and the US has done that after every war. I was part of the Clinton Peace Dividend. They inactivated the Reserve Arty bn I commanded and then inactivated the FA BDE HQ I was in. We were a lot less expensive to operate than Active Component and were about as good.
Our interest now is a politically correct military. We'll reduce standards so women can meet the physical requirements of combat units. We just celebrated how much stronger and ready the military was because GLBT could come out of the closet. Green fuels when we are awash with petroleum reserves? Really big change since I was a half-stepping weekend warrior. Way back then, getting rounds down range on time on target and the ability to move shoot and communicate had ZERO dependence on what you did or didn't do in your bedroom or whom you did it with. These clowns will do whatever it takes to destroy the military.
Small arms to Syria? And that will be affective against what the Russians and Iranians are supplying? I never heard what they were shipping? 5.56 when the rebels are armed with AK's or do we have a goodly supply and military need for 7.62? I wouldn't put it past the military geniuses we seem to be collecting over the past few years. [/rant]