Monday, August 03, 2009

How to waste money

FOREIGN POLICY has a neat page, entitled "The List: The World's Biggest Military Boondoggles". It's quite a list, and it seems that the U.S. is not alone in trying to make failure expensive.
  • Britain: TYPE 45 DARING-CLASS DESTROYER  Budget: $10.6 billion for six ships Status: Delayed   From the people who brought you Lucas electrics.
  • Russia: SS-NX-30 BULAVA SUBMARINE-LAUNCHED BALLISTIC MISSILE Budget: $500 million and counting Status: Stalled   You might not want to be on the boat that tries to launch that puppy.
  • China: THE 085 AND 089 PROJECTS Budget: Unknown Status: In development   China learns to build a Nimitz-class aircraft carrier. Good luck.
  • France: PORTE-AVIONS 2 Budget: $4.7 billion and counting Status: Stalled   France and the UK do work nicely together on occasion, but this isn't it.
  • The EU: A400M TRANSPORT AIRCRAFT Budget: $27.7 billion Status: Endangered   Europe spends large to find out just how good the American C-130J really is.

It's only money.

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