The United States Armed Forces are a behemoth spread all over the globe, from Africa to
Japan to Cuba.
Its current proposed budget for fiscal year 2017 is $603 billion dollars.
That is an amount larger than the next 7 largest military budgets in the world combined.
It is a budget that is used to fuel not only the current picture of the Armed Forces but
about 200 billion dollars for procurement and research and development.
Even with all that money, the amount spent on many military projects flabbergasts both
politicians and the US public.
Many projects make the entire Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb, which cost about
27 billion dollars in today’s money, seem modest.
With cost overruns and an attitude of accepting nothing but the best, we thought it would
be interesting to take a look at these normally cost prohibitive programs in this episode
of The Infographics Show: Top 10 Most Expensive US Military Projects.
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Number 10: The Littoral Combat Ship The United States Navy Littoral Combat Ship
program was meant to develop a vessel to replace aging and more specialized ships that operate
near shorelines such as minesweepers and assault ships.
Despite former Secretary of the Navy Gordan England’s claim that the ship was supposed
to be a “relatively inexpensive” member of the United States Navy Destroyer family,
the cost of the program has now passed $37.4 billion dollars.
All that for a ship a Department of Defense report found should not be expected to survive
in a hostile combat environment nor could the ship successfully complete US Navy full
shock trials.
The Navy itself has admitted that despite the cost and delays, the ship has only “very
modest” combat abilities.
Number 9: UGM-133 Trident II The UGM-133 Trident II is the nuclear equipped
missile program that is deployed on US ballistic missile submarines to make up the United States
Navy’s arm of the nuclear triad.
Deployed in 1990 to replace the Trident C-4 missile, the Trident II has much greater range
and accuracy than its predecessor.
The cost of this greater range and accuracy is $40.6 billion dollars.
The missile is able to travel at approximately 18,000 miles per hour, or 24 times the speed
of sound, and carry a nuclear payload of up to 14 thermonuclear warheads per missile.
Number 8: CVN-78 Aircraft Carrier The CVN-78 Aircraft Carrier, or the Ford Class
Carrier after the lead ship of the class, is currently in production to replace the
Nimitz Class aircraft carrier.
So far the lead ship USS Gerald R. Ford and the USS Theodore Roosevelt have launched in
a program expected to cost $42.5 billion dollars.
The Navy would argue it is getting a bang for its buck in its replacement of the Nimitz
class which launched in 1970.
The Ford class can carry up to 90 aircraft and sail for 90 days without being resupplied.
Each ship in the class is expected to have a service life of 50 years and act as a key
part in power projection for the United States military around the world.
Number 7: Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet The F/A-18 Super Hornet carrier based multirole
fighter was the United States Navy’s replacement for the F-14 Tomcat, now serving alongside
its brother, the F/A-18 Hornet in serving on today’s Nimitz and Ford class aircraft
carriers.
The total program costs reached $51 billion dollars, costing twice as much per aircraft
as the F/A-18 Hornet.
For the doubling of cost, the Navy did get several upgrades.
The airframe is slightly larger but also uses fewer parts, increasing the simplicity of
the design while improving the aerodynamic effectiveness of the place.
The internal fuel capacity was also increased by 33%, which expanded mission range by 41%,
and the Super Hornet receives a suite of new and improved electronics systems.
Number 6: Boeing KC-46 The Boeing KC-46 Pegasus is an air refueling
tanker and transport aircraft for the United States Air Force.
Based off of Boeing’s 767 Airliner, the first of the new aircraft was expected to
be deployed in 2016 with the first full batch of 18 combat ready planes expected to be delivered
by early 2018.
The KC-46 is being used to replace the quickly aging KC-135 Stratotanker.
The program cost has entered $52 billion dollars but does have notable advantages in both Cargo
and Aeromedical evacuation capabilities over the KC-135.
Number 5: Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey The Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey has its origins
in the failure of Operation Eagle Claw during the Iran Hostage Crisis of 1980 where the
United States Armed Forces decided it needed an aircraft that could carry troops long distances
quickly while having the functionality of a helicopter.
Fast forward 27 years to 2007 when the V-22 Osprey was officially deployed by the United
States Marine Corps followed by the United States Air Force.
The program was for a long time the poster child of cost overruns and efficiency eventually
costing $53.5 billion dollars.
This despite being repeatedly noted that regular helicopters could be had with the same capabilities
for half of the cost.
Number 4: DDG-51 Guided Missile Destroyer In production since the 1980s, the DDG-51
Arleigh Burke Class Guided Missile Destroyer was developed as a multirole destroyer to
utilize many new combat systems developed shortly before, including the Aegis defense
system and the Tomahawk cruise missile.
After the first ship of the class was officially commissioned in 1991 it has become the only
destroyer in the United States Navy.
Despite being in service 26 years, the Navy is planning on purchasing a third group of
the Arleigh Burke Class, running program costs up to $87.3 billion dollars with more spending
in the future.
That makes the Arleigh Burke Destroyers one of the most expensive and longest running
programs in United States Military history.
Number 3: Columbia Class Ballistic Missile Submarine
The Columbia Class of Ballistic Missile Submarine is in development as the replacement home
to the United States Navy Submarine Based Nuclear Missiles from the current Ohio Class
Submarine.
The first Columbia Class Submarine is expected to launch in 2031, exactly 50 years after
the first of the Ohio Class Submarines launched.
The Columbia Class will have 16 missile tubes and will never need to be refueled during
its expected 42-year service life.
The Government Accountability Office released a report expecting the total acquisition cost
of the Class to be $100.2 billion dollars and expect it would be another over $100 million
dollars per year per submarine in maintenance.
Number 2: Ballistic Missile Defense System The Ballistic Missile Defense System is a
sprawling program geared towards stopping incoming missiles including detection all
of the way through interceptors.
This program includes the Patriot Missile Defense System currently deployed in Israel
and the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, better known as THAAD, that is currently
being deployed to South Korea.
Although it originated in President Ronald Reagan’s Star Wars, the program is still
technically in the development stage and may one day include space-based and laser defense
systems.
So far, the program has cost $126.2 billion dollars, and it is currently unknown just
how much farther it can go.
Number 1: F-35 Lightning II The F-35 Lightning II is the new fifth-generation
stealth fighter being acquired by the United States Navy, Air Force, and Marine Corps along
with many of our allies and it is quickly gaining a reputation.
And not for their performance in the aerial exercise named Red Flag, where the F-35 racked
up a 20 to 1 kill/death ratio.
No, the F-35 has blown by the V-22 Osprey as the poster child of ridiculous costs and
cost overruns.
The F-35 Lightning II is projected to cost nothing short of an astronomical $1.5 trillion
dollars.
That’s right, a single weapons program is expected to cost well over every other program
on this list combined.
A cost so bad Bloomberg has called it the trillion dollar mistake, although almost everyone
acknowledges the program has gotten so big both economically and politically, it cannot
be allowed to fail.
If you want to see a comparison of the American F-35 and the Russian Su-35, tap the video
on your screen.
Do you think the US is justified in spending such exorbitant amounts of money on military
projects?
Tell us why or why not in the comments below!
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