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| Science & Technology |
| Pentagon set to award US Air Force's next-generation fighter jet contract, sources say |
| 2025-03-22 |
| [FoxNews] Boeing and Lockheed are competing for the contract worth more than $20 billion Can't wait for DOGE to hit this one. The Pentagon’s Risky Experiment [CityJournal] For the sake of both American national security and industrialization, the Trump administration should keep a close eye on the Tech Right. A grand experiment in “defense transformation” is underway at the Pentagon. New Defense secretary Pete Hegseth has promised to field emerging technologies, reform the acquisition process, and build a resilient defense industrial base. He has also directed an 8 percent budget cut—some $50 billion—to shift funds toward new priorities, including technologies such as unmanned systems. Proponents of this shakeup argue that the U.S. grew complacent after the Cold War, consolidating its defense industry into a handful of bloated “prime” contractors, like Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. Meantime, China and other adversaries developed cheap technologies that could neutralize America’s powerful, but expensive, platforms. Unless the U.S. deploys its own arsenal of cheap, software-enabled weapons, it will face a prohibitive “cost exchange ratio” in a war with China—losing multibillion-dollar warships, for instance, to missiles that cost a few hundred thousand dollars. Research and recent developments (like drone deployment in the Russo-Ukrainian War) seem to confirm this challenge. Hegseth’s experiment joins the priorities of several parts of President Donald Trump’s coalition. The Tech Right—including upstart defense contractors such as SpaceX, Palantir, and Anduril and their venture capital supporters—believes that it can revolutionize U.S. warfighting readiness with cheap, mass-produced weapons and cutting-edge software. The more populist “New Right,” for its part, sees a military build-up primarily as a way to restore American industry and the middle class. For now, both sides think they can have it all: build an unmatched military, create jobs, and save money. But this ambitious project faces several problems. |
| Posted by:Skidmark |
| #6 Unfortunately, Musk is too stretched at the moment to consider competing. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2025-03-22 15:15 |
| #5 BTW__ Called it the F-47, in honor of POTUS 47. |
| Posted by: Mercutio 2025-03-22 10:54 |
| #4 Articles yesterday said Boeing got the contract. Hopefully the design doesn't call for doors. |
| Posted by: Mercutio 2025-03-22 10:52 |
| #3 The number of military contractors for builds has severely contracted since 1960s. That's the problem with mergers and the resultant pseudo-competition. It's also compounded since certain national security issues means that foreign competition is out. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2025-03-22 07:01 |
| #2 Northrop Grumman. |
| Posted by: Whiskey Mike 2025-03-22 04:04 |
| #1 Both Boeing and Lockheed should not get the contract. Lockheed will cost three or four times the contracted amount, possibly more and delay delivery till maybe the next century. Boeing right now has such poor quailty control, we'll be locky if the planes remain in flying condition and still be intact after a few flight cycles. Both their planes would most likely requires a 1housand hours maintenance for every hour the plane fly. Frankly I wouldn't trust them to do the job right, on time and within contacted costs. Who else can we seek to bid on the contracts? |
| Posted by: Seeking Cure For Ignorance 2025-03-22 02:31 |