By Ray Cardello for September 24, 2023, Season 22 / Post 11

An F-35 jet went missing this week when its pilot was forced to eject over the skies of South Carolina. This mishap created an embarrassing situation for our Military. The Marines, with all of the sophisticated equipment of our Military, could not locate the downed jet and went to the public for help finding the wreckage. The F-35 is our newest, most complex, and expensive addition to our air command. This week’s event exposed a fact the Military would rather have kept under wraps. The entire F-35 program is on track to cost $1.7 trillion over the plane’s lifetime, and the Department of Defense plans to purchase nearly 2,500 F-35s from Lockheed Martin. The problem is the track record of the F-35, with almost half of the jet’s training missions aborted due to faulty components or systems. Unfortunately, the F-35 program is not the first to have disappointing results in recent years. It should alarm all Americans that we are losing our edge in producing a well-equipped and trained defense to protect us worldwide.

On November 22, 2016, while the world watched, the U.S. Navy’s newest, most complex warship ground to a stop in the middle of the Panama Canal, both propellers seized, leaving the ship dead in the water. The warship, the USS Zumwalt, DDG-1000, had to be towed out of the canal. 

The Zumwalt Class destroyer was to be America’s most potent and versatile modern warship. The project failed as only 3 of the planned 32 ships were built.

In the case of the Zumwalt-class, the unit cost ballooned to $5.9 billion per ship in 2009, which was 81% more than initially planned. 

The USS Zumwalt DDG-1000 also lacks various necessary defense features for any modern ship, such as anti-torpedoes, long-range air defense missiles, and anti-ship missiles.

Are these setbacks to our military preparedness the fault of the Defense Department, contractors, politicians, or a combination of all? There is certainly enough blame to pass around, including a lack of quality work by the workers themselves. The solution for Washington will be to throw more money at the problem, but that just fattens the pot for everyone to dip into. I am not a proponent of government studies as they usually are open-ended and fail to produce results. Still, a solution to this failure to equip our Military has to become a priority. We are not keeping up with the advancements of the Chinese Military. They may have already passed us on air and land superiority, and as our Navy is retiring ships without replacements, they will probably have an edge at sea, too.

Today, we are far too concerned with Ukraine and pledging our unlimited support with no endgame or plan. We are earmarking billions in aid and equipment we cannot afford to lose. We are bolstering what will eventually be a losing effort while sidetracking us from being ready to defend ourselves. This should not be a comforting thought for any American, and another reason that we have to remove Joe Biden from the White House. I believe in American Exceptionalism, and if there is one area in which it is most important, it is protecting our homeland. Our foes are not slowing their trek for world dominance, and the best deterrent to any aggression is a powerful United States Military. We do not have that deterrent today.