Failed Weapons the US Wasted the Most Money On

[rebewranger]

 
Failed Weapons the US Wasted the Most Money On
Samuel Stebbins - Yesterday 6:00 PM
 
 
Failed Weapons the US Wasted the Most Money On

 
The U.S. military budget is the largest in the world, and by a wide margin. The Biden administration recently submitted a defense budget of $773 billion for fiscal 2023 - which is more than the combined budgets of the next 10 highest-spending countries combined.

While the size of America’s military budget is an enduring subject of political controversy, the latest budget has allocated some funding to initiatives that even some defense industry critics can get behind - such as pay raises for service members, improved housing for military families, and support for Ukraine (Here is a look at how the U.S. is arming Ukraine). 

If history offers any lessons, however, it is almost certain that some share of America's military spending in fiscal 2023 will go to waste and end up as sunk costs - funding for projects that will ultimately go nowhere.

24/7 Wall St. reviewed some of the weapons programs in recent decades that have wasted the most taxpayer money. Programs are ranked on rough estimates of government expenditures, not adjusted for inflation.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/failed-weapons-the-us-wasted-the-most-money-on/ss-AAYCt3K?ocid=msedgntp&cvid=45c8846b82834a26af5f1f17e1f0471e

[PeteS in CA]

The article's slideshow and my browser (Vivaldi) aren't playing with each other, so I don't see the list. Military development programs tend to be at or just over the edge of what can be done (and the FCC constantly reassigning parts of the spectrum the military made viable to commercial usage and "giving" the military parts of the spectrum not economically usable doesn't help!). So coming up short happens. And then there's idiots riding hobby horses looking a a track to run (e.g. LCSes).

Anyway, reaching back into history ... In the 1930s, the US Army was looking to replace the obsolescent B-10 bomber. Among the competitors were the B-17 and B-18. The Army, in its infinite wisdom, decided that the B-17 was too good, and thereby also too expensive. Somehow, the idea that "too good" meant that anything much less good would quickly become obsolescent or obsolete didn't occur the Army Air Corps people. When, 5 years after the B-18's introduction, WW2 came with the PH attack, Bolos were already obsolescent and being replaced in front-line service by ... surprise, surprise, surprise ... B-17s (with "E" models coming into service!). B-18s got relegated to coastal anti-submarine patrolling (until replaced by much-longer-ranged B-24s) and training. B-18s were almost a total waste.