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US Military Working On 'Optionally-Manned' Bomber
An anonymous reader writes "Despite massive budget deficits, the U.S. military is working towards a stealthy and 'optionally-manned' bomber capable of carrying nuclear weapons. The craft is intended to replace the 1960s B-52, 1970s B-1 and 1990s B-2 bombers. The new aircraft is meant to be a big part of the U.S. 'pivot' to the Pacific. With China sporting anti-ship weapons that could sink U.S. carriers from a distance, a new bomber is now a top priority."
It's not the USAF that would be exhibiting such stupidity, it's the military contractors who design and build the system. Given the fact that not that long ago, some military contractor used a Windows NT computer to control a warship, resulting in the ship having to be towed when NT crashed, I wouldn't put it past them to make some other boneheaded design decision somewhere. If anyone thinks the defense contractors only hire the best and brightest software engineers, and make sure they have all the time and free reign they need to do things to the highest possible standard, that person must be smoking something. I'm a software engineer, and in my experience, the engineers who go to work for the defense contractors are guys who can't get a job anywhere else, are desperate for a job (they got laid off and their town has lots of defense work and not much else), or are getting close to retirement and they're counting the days left. Defense contracting is not a place good engineers want to go to work, esp. software engineers: the hours are extremely rigid (you must be at your desk at 8AM, you must take lunch at 12, you must be back at your desk at 1PM sharp, etc.), the work is unbelievably bureaucratic, and it's unlikely the project you work on will ever be completed or used, with relatively simple projects dragging on for a decade.