Feb 25 2008B-2 Stealth Bomber Crashes, I Cry

Somebody's got some splain'n to do.

A $1.2b aircraft is destroyed and the first thing everybody wants to know is whether the pilots are alright... The US Air Force apparently REALLY wants everybody to believe that a pilot is worth $600m to them - a tough sell when you consider that an infantryman isn't worth $1000 of body armour to the army.

So now there's a fleet of only 20 B-2s is the US arsenal. I've got to ask, wouldn't 15 be enough? I mean, assuming for the moment that nobody got fat off the extra six, wouldn't it be preferable to wait an extra hour and a half for the total destruction of the world if it meant saving $6b in the meantime? Any idea how much food or medicine (or petroleum) that could buy?

#2 - You get the food and medicine you are able to get now because of military equipment like this watches out for your dumb ass. I bet you're the type of guy that if living in a land of chocolate would get all excited about a 50% off chocolate sale.

#2: I can't believe you just put a price on human life. Of course the first thing everyone is going to ask is whether the pilots are all right.

I see what you're getting at: a larger issue of military spending versus humanitarian aid. I happen to agree. But you've got the wrong priorities if you're asking how much one life is worth.

#3: And I bet you're the type of guy who would eschew the 50% savings if the full price package had an American flag on it.

#4: I know, it's sick, isn't it? What's worse is that the fluctuations in the price are driven by PR concerns. A $1.2b tear in the taxpayer's pocket? Don't worry, the (2) pilots are fine (nevermind about the plane)... A full thousand American soldiers are killed in Iraq in March, their brave sacrifice will never be forgotten (How much was that body armour, again?) Of course, you don't get to see the wreckage OR the flag-draped coffins, so you'll have to base your judgments on peripheral information the US military is only too happy to provide.

Ah, the bumbling US military. They should have their own cartoon series. This Brit finds them hilarious, except when they accidentally shoot us.

Wow. That sux. At least they are alright.

oh, and I agree with #2

#8: Ah yes, the bumbling U.S.! how funny... Lets not forget how we whooped you real bad for our independence. Then, after that, lets not forget how we saved you in WWI and WWII. What buffoons we are!

If we did have our own cartoon series England would be a giant vagina.

#8: Actually, France would be the giant vagina. England? The huge festering asshole.

#9: Truth.

It's ironic that the plane is a technological marvel created purely for destruction. I could not care less that it crashed as machines like this contribute nothing to the development of the human race, rather they hinder it. Plus the fact that the comments on this blog got jingoistic says it all.

Glad the pilots are safe, they have families.

#4: #2 didn't put a price on human life. That, as #5 said, is something calculated by the US government/military. A soldier has to be expendable, they're worth as much as they cost to train (not educate, just train), plus their salary. That's why infantry is replaceable. I don't agree with putting a price on human life, but that's how its done when you're talking about the military...soldiers are, after all, tools of the government..."pets" if you will.

#3: No, we get food and medicine because of pharmaceuticals, scientists, farmers, and trading. The military is superfluous, and the US knows it...they did that on purpose. The US government made it that way to get ready for doomsday, or a big war. Then they justify it saying we need it. There's a large debate and discussion that goes on with all this crap "how much is too much," which I don't want to get in to, but bottom line, that's a very closed-minded way to think.

#8: You're giving the US way too much credit. Had it not been for alliances with other countries, the US would NOT have stood a chance.

Now for the article. Good that the pilots are safe, and shame about the plane, but the US doesn't need to be wasting money. Go ahead and argue if you want, but facts are facts.

#8. you're #8, my comment was 6. Go watch Sesame Street, they teach you how to count.
ps the whole "we saved you in the war" thing is a moot point. It doesn't count if you weren't in the fight from the start. You can't just sit back watching people fight then jump in at the last moment to help and take all the glory. The real winners of WWII was the Russian weather, when it froze the balls off the Nazis.

Ironically, if you look at military spending as a percent of GDP, the US is actually spending less today than at any point since WWII...

And it's naive to think the world would be a happier place if the US minimized its military spending and presence. It's that same spending and presence that won the Cold War and has maintained stability since '89. No one wants to get into a real war if they know the US might get involved.

The B-2 doesn't actually cost 1.2 Billion dollars to produce, its the adjusted cost when you include the sunk cost of developing the first one. The US originally planned to have hundreds of B-2's to fight the Soviet Union's strategic bomber fleet, but when the Cold War ended, the US downgraded its order to 21 bombers, lumping a greater fraction of the development cost into each bomber, despite their comparatively low marginal cost. So basically, you're not really looking at 1.2 billion dollars of wreckage there, its just an inflated number due to the downgraded marginal cost spiral.

PS-Every soldier in Iraq and Afghanistan has body armor now, hell, every soldier in Basic training has body armor now. In 2003 they only made body armor for front line troop and had only 1 factory to make the vests, so when they discovered they needed more it took a lot longer for supply to meet demand. Cost wasn't a factor. Bad planning and logistics was.

Whose side do you choose when both sides of this kind of debate really get on your nerves?

#13 While I agree that the whole "we saved your ass" in WWII comment is lame simply because its simplistic.....saying we sat back to the end is even more so.
Even before the formal entry of the US into the war, Britain never could have sustained its own defense without Lend-Lease....essentially free US hardware being given to the Brits for crap promises of crap land to make German-sympathizing Americans happy. Furthermore, to even think that Britain could have -EVER- had enough manufacturing capacity or manpower to execute a successful invasion of Europe in 1944 without US help is incredibly over optimistic. By the time Britain could have opened up a continental front against Germany, Zhukov and Stalin would have run the Reich over long since and you would have had ASSR's all the way to Avignon.
And the "Russian weather" didn't win the war....it was a contributing factor. If anything "won" the war it was German stupidity and stubbornness over Stalingrad.

As far as pilots #2.... yes....a pilot is not as expensive to train as a B2 is to build. But in terms of time investment....a pilot takes longer to train by a long shot then a B2 takes to build. So it makes sense that people ask about how the pilots are....even ignoring the intrinsic value of human life (which is frankly the most important part...so by all means...lets make sure the pilots are ok).

Next.....its nice when you can laugh at the bumbling US military. Ha ha ha. Say it to 13 Nimitz class supercarriers...more then the entire non-US world fleet combined.

For the record....I'm semi-anti-military spending. I'm a liberal. I'm also a history major...who gets angry at overly simplified nationalist ignorance.

Prandtl-Glauert bitches!

#17: I don't know....... Were both pilots trained concurrently?

Wow!! 13?! How much do THEY cost? I think you may have let #6 get to you there - you did a much better job on #13.

Everyone is missing the point that PHOTOSHOP.
hahah debate? I mean hello,
B-2s don't break the speed of sound....not very stealthy to have a major turbulence wave and/or boom

lol, Can you read? "That's one with the cloud effect COMMONLY ASSOCIATED with breaking the sound barrier (although this B-2 is not breaking the barrier, or as we like to say in the business "bustin' up in that noise wall")

The clouds just condesation from the plane flying over the ocean at a high speed, doesn't mean its breaking the sound barrier.

p.s Australia was the reason for winning the war

this would be totally hilarious if it wasn't so serious.

guate6 said it about best though - along with one or two others in the supporting argument, and i'm not british or american, but i certainly dislike americas meddle, fiddle, and bully tactics.

Sooner or later someone is going to take on the mighty US - and although i quite like the idea of someone standing up to arrogant americans, it will in reality be a dark day in human history.

Preach it, laz.

Right, now we need your help in Zimbabwe. F*** iraq (in fact it's already f***ed) ... if you are serious bout deposing torturous dictators, now's the time to act. Come on, it'll be a 24 hour war - get in, pop his ass, get out. How hard can it be??

Price of a human life, most accountants put that at apox $10million and wont spend more that that to stop each death (for most it's much less...)

#17 Saved ass in WW2??? The US were so late that by the time aid had started to arrive the Battle for Briton had already been won and by the time US troops started to arrive was after "el alamain" and "battle for Moscow" had also been won.
"who gets angry at overly simplified nationalist ignorance.", how about this overly simplified version; It was a big war to defend freedom and democracy, the US were nearly three years late.
"essentially free US hardware" that we finished paying for in Dec 2006, thax for the "free stuff"

So this started as an article about the B-2 stealth bomber that crashed and now it's an arguement about who did what and who saved who during WWI and WWII?!

hmm.... I do wonder why we're allies. The English hate Americans because they're so arrogant they can't see anybody else's problems, and the Americans hate the English because apparently we need your help as the big strong man country to fight our own battles. You're always late anyway so why do we even ask for your help?

The English are wimps and the Americans are arrogant. END.

Fuel $6000 US Dollars
Armor $1000 US Dollars
Plane $1.5b Dollars

An untrained pilot is priceless!!

ahahaha

hahah america sucks i live in america and i want to move out, and laz said in #22 "Sooner or later someone is going to take on the mighty US - and although i quite like the idea of someone standing up to arrogant americans, it will in reality be a dark day in human history" what do you mean it will be a dark day in human history??????

p.s.
brittan rocks and so does australia!!!, the americans are bumbling idiots who think they are the best things in the universe, and we r not, america is the ass of the humanrace!