En ska bort

USA:s försvarsminister Leon Panetta förbereder stora nedskärningar på det amerikanska försvaret. Exakt vilket hot som det framtida försvaret skall vara designat att möta är svårt att tolka från hans uttalanden.

He said the nation needs an army strong enough to deal with conventional threats. “If an enemy does challenge us in a conventional land war, we need an army that can, as General George Patton used to say, ‘hold the enemy by the nose and kick them in the ass,'" said Panetta.

At the same time, he said it the military must be smarter and more versatile to deal with terrorist threats that he says are not going away.

“Still, the reality is there are not a lot of countries out there building massive tank armies," he said. "It is unlikely that we will be fighting Desert Storm in the future. Instead, I see both state and non-state actors arming with high-tech weaponry that is easier both to buy and to operate, weapons that frustrate our traditional advantage.”

Men en sak verkar i varje fall vara helt klar. F-35 kommer att få det tufft de närmaste åren.

"I am concerned about the three variants and whether as we go forward in this fiscal environment, whether we can afford all three," Dempsey told the House Armed Services Committee.
...
The program's cost has jumped to about $385 billion, and the price of each is at roughly $103 million in constant dollars or $113 million in fiscal year 2011 dollars.

En ska bort. Mina pengar ligger på att det blir F-35B.



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