Slashdot Mirror
USAF Seeks Air Force One Replacement
Tyketto writes "The United States Air Force has taken the first public step in the search for a replacement of the Boeing VC-25, also known as Air Force One, saying it is no longer cost effective to operate and modernize the two 19-year-old VC-25s, which are converted Boeing 747-200s. Airbus has already submitted data for the A380, and while Boeing has had the Air Force One contract for nearly 50 years, delays with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner and Boeing 747-8, as well as the KC-X Tanker competition, may see the USAF looking to Europe for its next presidential aircraft."
They want a new Air Plane?
Go to WallMart and order one made in China.
The United states is only good at manufacturing 2 things.
Weapons and Slot Machines.
How is the CoC fragile? If the top man is out of contact and presumed lost, or incapacitated, then command works its way down the chain. This is by design and is robust.
If your chain is populated by nutters, you don't stand a chance of having a rational response when they get command control, now do you?
The CEOs flying in corporate jets to Washington made sense to me; it was an easy but ultimately stupid thing to nit-pick about.
On the other hand, some commercial planes have been in the air for over 30 years or more. The two Air Force 1s required a ridiculous amount of money to convert and retrofit over the years; two new ones from scratch could probably approach, if not exceed, a billion dollars. I have to ask, for what purpose?
Is there something the president will need to do that cannot be done in the current AF1? I mean, I know the actual replacement is set to happen in 2017, which would make the planes closer to 30 years old, but I don't know how much more "modernizing" the plane needs.
I'm not saying AF1 isn't important, but it just seems like such government waste. It pisses me off that the president, OUR employee, can't make do with "adequate," that he's got to have a flying mansion with more amenities than most people will ever even see in their lifetimes. The meeting room alone costs more than my house, with a table that costs more than both of my cars. The president doesn't get a berth to sleep in, he gets a suite.
My problem is not so much with the expense of the necessary electronics and communications equipment, but with the extravagance of if all.
Stupid sexy Flanders.
When somebody is that valuable, it makes sense.
Nobody is that valuable.
"You can't allow somebody to commit the crime before you detain them." [Condoleezza Rice]
Let's never forget the incompetence on that day.
I'm positive the second plane could have been stopped. The appropriate information existed. The planes were known to have turned off their transponders. The first plane hit the first world trade center. The problem was, the fucking president decided that "My Pet Goat" was more important than protecting American lives.
It's a good thing he's a christian; I'd hate for him to be confused as to why he's in hell when he dies.
It's been a long time.
The bowling alley, and most of the other perks in the White House, was not paid for with taxpayer money.
Sure they were. They were paid for by the POTUS, right? And where does the salary of the POTUS come from? :P
"I'm not sure I like the fugnutish tone you used in your post!" -RogL (608926)-