Apparently the military or the companies send out trolls to push these kind of hundred billion dollar obscenities.  This will probably increase as the US increasingly becomes a police state.  We will get the American Voice Of Truth straight from the Pentagon.

Alright, demilitarization is also one step towards supplication to those in the world who would much rather kill Americans!  Yes, let’s do that.

This post is not a diatribe on the build up or dismantleing of the military, simply facts on why ariel refuelling tankers are necessary in today’s military.

Simply put, ariel refuelling tankers are necessary for military jets (and helicopters) to fly any appreciable distance.  Most planes which will be flying into battle need to be topped off very soon after take-off.  They do use a prodigious amount of fuel just in taking off.  Additionally, all strategic bombers (B-52’s, B-1’s and B-2’s) are based in the US.  For them to fly to various hotspots, like the B-2’s did in Kosovo, they can only do the round trip with a number of refuellings.  The current refuelling fleet (except for the Navy) consists of modified DC-10’s or 707’s.  The 707 in particular has been outdated for decades, and I challenge anyone to tell me the last time they saw a DC-10.  You may remember that the current Air Force One, a Boeing 747, replaced a 707 based version in the late 80’s due to aging.  The Navy uses specialized aircraft based on carriers to do most of their refuelling, usually A-6’s modified with “buddy stores” of fuel.

That is why the KC-X is necessary.  There definitely was shenanigans involved in Boeing’s initially being awarded the contract, and it cost a number of high ranking military and corporate folks their jobs.

If we are going to send men and women into harms way, it makes sense to provide them with equipment that is not the same used by their grandparents.

Felicity, you are partially right.
Like anything else with the Pentagon, the KC-X is a boondoggle. The needs of our fighting men and women, as ever, take a back seat to politics and profit. Shit, they’re not even on the bus.

Studies have been done, rest assured, on the utility of the KC-X.
An updated fleet of aerial tankers is vital if the US is to successfully bomb Iran.

Combat jets burn prodigious amounts of fuel and would have a hard time getting from their bases (and carriers) to Tehran and back.

Good news! Demilitarization is one essential step to putting this country back on the right track and curb the appetite of the military-industrial complex.

You’re right felicity. This one who calls himself “voice of truth” is in fact a “voice of falsehood”!

I stand corrected, I think, but the only articles I’ve read on the subject have led me to form the opinion I’ve expressed.  Perhaps you should get on the stump and sell the things to us disbelievers.

If you have no understanding of military logistics, please do not comment on them.  Your posting is absolutely clueless about the need for aerial refueling tankers, or the fact that the existing tankers are mostly based on 30 and 40 year old airframe designs.

So, the flying gas stations have been grounded for now.  Whoever coined the word ‘boondoggle’ must have been thinking of the KC-X, the latest Defense Dept. behemoth to rob the Treasury.  Has a study ever been done to determine just exactly when, in what situation would a plane be in - that a flying gas station wouldn’t be in - where its services would be needed?  Of course not.