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Mr. Luddite

On 4/15/2017 2:18 PM, wrote:
On Sat, 15 Apr 2017 13:51:30 -0400, "Mr. Luddite"
wrote:

Come on Greg. A WWII vintage 5-inch shell or ammo for a .45 isn't the
same as a $15M bomb (not counting development costs) that undergoes
regular updating for improvements. We only built 15 of them. They
aren't "throwaways". Geeze.

Since when has DoD cared about the cost of things they throw away?
If it really has TNT in it, it certainly has a ticking clock. (I still
bet it is a mix of RDX and ammonium nitrate)

I don't know and you don't know. You are "betting".

There are strict rules about classes of ordinance and what is service
ready, training or trash, based on the age. They know nothing lasts
forever. There are certainly expiration dates on ordinance.
The guidance package may actually expire before the bomb, just because
of capacitor degradation. My 20 year old PCs are becoming few and far
between because of that fact alone. I do not have a single socket 7
board that still works.

Heh. You're comparing your 20 year old PC with a mil-spec guidance
system that is subject to regular upgrades?

Maybe you have forgotten some of your USCG days Greg. The military
doesn't just store away equipment in a storage shed for 20 years in
case they may need it someday. Each branch of the services has a
"Planned Maintenance Program" for virtually *everything* they use or
have in inventory. Regular tests are done, some weekly, some monthly,
some annually depending on what the equipment is and there are specific
requirements the equipment must meet. If they don't they are repaired,
if the repair is not economically feasible there is a complex procedure
for retiring it and taking it off the books.

The Planned Maintenance Program also deals with scheduled upgrades and
improvements as they become available.

As for wars and killing of people, it's been going on since we emerged
from caves. What makes you think it's going to stop in your lifetime?
It sure would be nice but it just isn't realistic.

I understand that but every little regional grievance should not
require a US response. Why are we in Afghanistan? The terrorists are
in Pakistan.
I do notice the speed of our response seems to be inversely
proportional to the amount of melanin in their skin.
A dead little white (looking) girl will create a demand for action but
thousands of dead black kids in Africa (or the US) is just the "rub of
the green".
That seems to span both political parties and the liberal/conservative
divide.