If you’re talking to Republicans or Democrats, you will receive different opinions regarding the 587-billion-dollar defense budget for 2016. Their opinions do not matter; they all vote in favor of the Pentagon. Our military is the biggest single spender and wastes more money than any other entity in the nation.

Here are some facts about military failures to use their budget wisely in fiscal year 2014.

The F-35 fighter was expected to replace existing tactical jets in the Air Force and Marines Corps plus some in the Navy and many planes in allied air forces.

The truth is that the entire program is a failure. The software remains dysfunctional, and in June of 2014 the Air Force grounded all of the aircraft when one caught fire on the runway.

Just 34 of the aircraft will cost seven-billion-dollars; but that’s not the final tally. Alleged collusion between Lockheed-Martin, and the military industrial complex adds more questions about the F-35. Maintenance costs could triple the overall expenditure of the failed aircraft. Experts doubt that it will ever live up to its expectations.

In 2014 the Navy spent two-billion-dollars on four ‘Littoral Combat Ships.’ They met the expectations of speed, but lacked sufficient armament. In addition, they lost against similar Chinese vessels in computer simulations.

In February, then Secretary of Defense, Chuck Hagel, cancelled an additional order for 20 of the unimpressive ships. But that didn’t deter the Navy brass. They ordered a new batch of the LCS with additional armor, and weapons.

The first ‘batch’ of the LCS was expected to cost $220 million per ship, but actually reached $670 million, and the new batch will cost $813 million per ship. Once again Lockheed Martin is one of the principal contractors.

The Army has more than 9,000 M-1 Abrams tanks; half of them are in storage. For unknown reasons, more M-1’s are manufactured each year. Appropriations continue and are supported by Congressmen Jim Jordan and Mike Turner of Ohio. The only place the M-1’s are manufactured is in Lima, Ohio.

The cost of the M-1’s in 2014 was $183 million; the end of the program should take place in 2020.

The Defense Logistic Agency is the main supply line for the military. It supplies everything from toilet paper to bombs. The DLA is known as the most inefficient agency in the military. Its warehouses are full, and it simply doesn’t know what to do with tons of dangerous munitions simply ‘laying around.’ In 2014, the agency finally disposed of $1.2 billion of excess bullets.

Over 13 years the military spent more than $100 billion reconstructing Afghanistan. It spent $7.6 billion fighting a losing war on opium alone. $370 million was spent between 2004 and 2013 to repair Afghan military vehicles; $230 million of those parts are missing.

The Pentagon through away $800 million on 48 aircraft that the Afghanis cannot fly, and have no maintenance capability.

1.5 billion was spent on buildings for the Afghan military, but the Army Corps of Engineers used incorrect insulation. The result; these buildings spontaneously combust.

Examples of military waste are endless, but Congress refuses to take action. Presidential candidate Marco Rubio says that if he becomes the president, he will raise the defense budget to one-trillion-dollars.

Those on the right wing claim that the government has no funds to care for needed social programs which would affect the majority of the American people; and yet they immediately approve any amount of defense spending. Who is making money from this poor choice; a choice which is detrimental to the lives of millions of Americans?

Op-Ed

By James Turnage

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Photo Courtesy of Forsvarsdepartementet

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