They refuse to spend less in other areas, which is the big reason why they haven't already solved the glaringly obvious drone problem. Not surprised they just want to throw more money at a new program instead of stepping on anyones toes in the other branches.
Pentagon spending on drones jumps from $225M to $55B in one year
41–50 of 112 posts
Re: Pentagon spending on drones jumps from $225M to $55B in one year
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure how true that is. Sure it's what we're seeing in Ukraine right now with both sides using them a lot, but my understanding is that has to due with the fact that neither side is able to get air superiority with conventional aircraft. The same reason Iran is using a lot of drones now. It doesn't seem like the US would be in a conflict where they don't have air superiority. Now I would agree that the US mili…
> The same reason Iran is using a lot of drones now. It doesn't seem like the US would be in a conflict where they don't have air superiority. Hmmm, this sentence appears to be a paradox? Is the US not fighting Iran right now? Iran has a very weak air force and the US claims air superiority, yet Iran is using a lot of drones. I think your comment proves GP's point, regardless of traditional air power, drones will fea…
Iranian drones have done nothing to prevent the US and Israel dropping gravity bombs en-mass over their capital right now. JDAMs and unguided munitions are still far cheaper for the explosion size than any drone today. That's not the situation in the Ukraine war on either side.
The US has used one-way "drones" since the 80s or earlier. The entire Gulf War in the early 90s featured a ton of tomahawk cruise missiles. The only real change is that the new shaheeds are way cheaper, slower, and smaller, but can be spammed in larger numbers.
Re: Pentagon spending on drones jumps from $225M to $55B in one year
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
We spend drastically more money than this on education; it isn't even in the same ballpark. People get tripped up about this because the funding comes from different taxing bodies (most education funding is state and local) --- but all taxation is linked. We also couldn't fully fund free school meals for this sum, this sum is an ambit claim by the administration not a budget, and a large component of this funding req…
Please don't compare the entirety of the US education system against an incremental fragment of military spending as though that isn't a completely bogus evaluation. We spend just as much on the war machine if not more. We're talking about an incremental fragment of the US military budget. It's fair to compare it to an incremental fragment of public wellness that would cost less and have profound impact. > and a larg…
Put real numbers to this. We spend well over a trillion dollars on education.
Also recognize the falsity of attributing the entire defense budget to "the war machine". There are policy debates that could take you lower or (like this request) higher, but it's not like an order-of-magnitude thing.
Re: Pentagon spending on drones jumps from $225M to $55B in one year
#44It would cost less to provide free breakfast and lunch to all public school students in the US, but that might actually improve the country's future instead of blowing things up.
US schools are some of the best funded in the world. The causative relationship of funding on student performance is not strong. Social programs such as Medicare, SSI, etc dwarf the military budget.
> The causative relationship of funding on student performance is not strong.
Please don't pretend that "school funding" is the same as feeding children or that we don't have established research showing a connection between school meal programs and improved academic performance and reduced student suspensions.
Re: Pentagon spending on drones jumps from $225M to $55B in one year
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
I'm not sure how true that is. Sure it's what we're seeing in Ukraine right now with both sides using them a lot, but my understanding is that has to due with the fact that neither side is able to get air superiority with conventional aircraft. The same reason Iran is using a lot of drones now. It doesn't seem like the US would be in a conflict where they don't have air superiority. Now I would agree that the US mili…
> The same reason Iran is using a lot of drones now. It doesn't seem like the US would be in a conflict where they don't have air superiority. Hmmm, this sentence appears to be a paradox? Is the US not fighting Iran right now? Iran has a very weak air force and the US claims air superiority, yet Iran is using a lot of drones. I think your comment proves GP's point, regardless of traditional air power, drones will fea…
Iran launched around 2k drones over the war. Ukraine uses around 200k/m.
https://www.kyivpost.com/post/55897
Either way the US needs way more drones instead of just expensive missiles/jets/boats/armor if they are going to face anyone serious like China.
Re: Pentagon spending on drones jumps from $225M to $55B in one year
#46Drones killing drones. No lives at stake any more. Like burning piles of money on the sidelines until one side runs out.
Surely that is better than burning piles of bodies?
Re: Pentagon spending on drones jumps from $225M to $55B in one year
#47Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please don't compare the entirety of the US education system against an incremental fragment of military spending as though that isn't a completely bogus evaluation. We spend just as much on the war machine if not more. We're talking about an incremental fragment of the US military budget. It's fair to compare it to an incremental fragment of public wellness that would cost less and have profound impact. > and a larg…
Put real numbers to this. We spend well over a trillion dollars on education. Also recognize the falsity of attributing the entire defense budget to "the war machine". There are policy debates that could take you lower or (like this request) higher, but it's not like an order-of-magnitude thing.
> We spend well over a trillion dollars on education.
And we spend well over a trillion dollars on defense. And yet the straight of hormuz is still closed, just like there are still children who don't have enough food and suffer for it. Comparing the total budget of one thing against a budget delta of another thing is wrong. Compare deltas of each and compare their benefits.
Re: Pentagon spending on drones jumps from $225M to $55B in one year
#48If only the regular folk could rise up and take back their tax money and spend it on something that collectively helps them like universal healthcare. It's so lucky for the crooks running the country that the regular folk haven't thought of that!
Re: Pentagon spending on drones jumps from $225M to $55B in one year
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Put real numbers to this. We spend well over a trillion dollars on education. Also recognize the falsity of attributing the entire defense budget to "the war machine". There are policy debates that could take you lower or (like this request) higher, but it's not like an order-of-magnitude thing.
> We spend well over a trillion dollars on education. And we spend well over a trillion dollars on defense. And yet the straight of hormuz is still closed, just like there are still children who don't have enough food and suffer for it. Comparing the total budget of one thing against a budget delta of another thing is wrong. Compare deltas of each and compare their benefits.
>"And we spend well over a trillion dollars on defense."
That's just not true; the US Military Budget for 2025 was (USD) $768 BB. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_...
Re: Pentagon spending on drones jumps from $225M to $55B in one year
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
US schools are some of the best funded in the world. The causative relationship of funding on student performance is not strong. Social programs such as Medicare, SSI, etc dwarf the military budget.
> The causative relationship of funding on student performance is not strong. Please don't pretend that "school funding" is the same as feeding children or that we don't have established research showing a connection between school meal programs and improved academic performance and reduced student suspensions.
We spend $100 billion a year on SNAP, which goes primarily to feeding children and mothers. Why is it so important to you to structure the program in one way (providing kids lunches in school) versus feeding kids a different way (providing parents cash to feed their kids)?