Saturday, February 23, 2008

#$&%!!

"B-2 Stealth bomber crashes on Guam."

Pilots ejected and are fine. For the record, this thing costs as much as an Arleigh Burke class destroyer. Except instead of having 52 and counting, we have 20 and decreasing. At least it crashed on U.S. territory and not somewhere where we would have to be REALLY worried about sanitizing the remains.

Also for the record, the USAF plans on acquiring their next new bomber in 2018. Supposedly. We're also supposedly buying 380 F-22s.

UPDATE: David Axe over at Danger Room adds some more perspective:
Some perspective: there were 21 B-2s. Now there are 20 -- a roughly 5-percent reduction in an instant. In terms of airframes, that's the equivalent of 30 F-15s crashing at the same time, or 60 F-16s, or 6 F-22s. In terms of money, that's equivalent to 20 F-15s, 24 F-16s or 10 F-22s.