Pentagon Pays $1 million to destroy $38 million F-14 Jet

Pentagon Pays $1 million to destroy $38 million F-14 Jet

rawstory.com

The US military paying a defense contractor at least $900,000 to shred fighter jets it paid hundreds of millions to private contractors to build, in the newest twist to what President Eisenhower once dubbed the "military-industrial complex."

The $38 million jets are each destroyed in a single day by Government Contractor: TRI-Rinse.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The amount of money these guys play with is amazing. I worry about living check to check. I worry if I am making enough money to eat. I wish I could get just a small government contract. I know I could use those funds much more effectively than any contractor or government bureaucracy.
I am sure most folks on ATS could spend this money more efficiently than the GOVT.

rawstory.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Why not just use some of those millions to build a large hanger and store them. The F-14 is still one of the most deadly fighters around.

Oh thats right we are talking about the govt.

I can't believe that a 1000 dollars wouldn't be enough to get a guy with a demolition ball to smash the jet fighter into tiny little pieces. What a waste of taxpayer money.

I think the artical is a little misleading. When they say "destroy the jets" they mean destroy the jets ability to fly, or to dismantel them into usable metal, and recycled. Not to go from +38 million to -39 million.

Originally posted by Golack
Why not just use some of those millions to build a large hanger and store them.

Umm... lets here, building "a large hanger" as you put it is not only unnecessary and redundant but would still cost millions not only build, maintain but also to secure. Not to mention the time and resource needed to do such a thing.

Anyway, it is unnecessary because "the boneyard" located at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base currently hosts the world largest storage facility of decommissioned military aircraft. This center is otherwise know as the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group.

AMARG also runs a highly successful operation of selling old and unnecessary aircraft parts to costumers around the world. This is done to get a positive end return for something that would otherwise just go to waste. As the links explains, it is a very successful business...

The economics of AMARG are highly advantageous for the federal government. For every $1 spent operating the facility, $11 is saved/produced from harvesting spare parts and selling off inventory. Congressional oversight determines what kind of equipment may be sold to what kind of customer.

You see the problem with the F-14 undergoing this type of storage, even though some will, is that it's electronic and hardware parts are very intensely sought after by foreign national governments who are not allies of the United States. With such a large facility managing a very large number of aircraft and employing thousands of civilians to work there a foreign govern with large resources will not find it difficult to obtain classified and off limit aircraft parts. Especially with our bad regulations and procedures governing this issue. No doubt we need new procedures but that tends to take longer to implement than hard countermeasures (ie. shredding).

Link 1 - Iran F-14 Parts
Link 2 - Iran F-14 Parts

Instead of risking this the US is placing many of the F-14 parts off limits to sale and it is more vigorously removing sensitive parts from some aircraft. Some F-14's will not be fully "sanitized" from all of their components because they will go into storage reserve, which means they will not be shredded. This is because we put all of the newest (least amount of flight hours and most amount of new technology) jets into long term storage from which they can be quickly taken out of and put back into service in case WWIII ever breaks out.

Now, the older A and B models which are stripped of their components would normally just sit there rusting at AMARG. However with airframe parts being in high demand oversees by countries like Iran (due to stress and fatigue) even "sanitized" airframe shells are valuable and a security risk. Even more worrying is that these "sanitized" aircraft have their parts sold. However with tens of thousands of parts up for sale each with their own level of sensitivity keeping track of not only the parts but the false front companies of foreign governments can be quite a challenge.

Customs and GAO officials worry about security problems with the program, however, and are seeking assurances the Pentagon will not sell surplus parts from the recently retired F-14 fleet.

Thousands of the components already are set for market. Baillie said that more than half of the roughly 76,000 parts for F-14 are general nuts-and-bolts hardware that the Pentagon surplus program can sell to the public with no restrictions.

About 10,000 are Tomcat-specific and will be destroyed, he said. The rest, about 23,000 parts, are valuable for both military and commercial use and are being reviewed to see whether Pentagon surplus can sell them without jeopardizing national security, Baillie said.

China - Iran F-14 Parts

Anyway, back to the empty airframes being shredded. Instead of having them sit there possibly having parts smuggled to the enemy while providing zero economic return, it is much more advantageous to shred them. At best 20 tons of prime high strength titanium and aircraft aluminum (from each F-14) will bring back some money to compensate for the cost of shredding.

The F-14A follows in the Grumman tradition of building rugged aircraft. It is built primarily of aircraft aluminum alloy and titanium, with selective use of graphite-epoxy composite assemblies.

Source

Originally posted by Golack
The F-14 is still one of the most deadly fighters around.

Not quite, only the F-14D could be considered highly capable of which there were a grand total of 55. Still there is a limit in terms of how much you can upgrade an airframe before it becomes cost prohibit to fly. With an average of 40-60 man maintenance hours for every flight hour the F-14 is too much of a hanger queen, an aircraft is useless if it can fly (Link). Which brings me to another point, the F-14 is generally outclassed by the Rhino Block II+ and the F-35C, no need to spend resources and funds trying to keep them air worthy when there are much more efficient, effective and capable fighter around. Still, the F-14D will likely be put into reserve storage, just in case.

[edit on 2-7-2007 by WestPoint23]

I wonder how much Democratic Sen. Ron Wyden is getting paid for this deal?

But here more slow, where all are slaves to gold, Where looks are merchandise, and smiles are sold.
Author: Samuel Johnson

I agree, golack. The F-14D was the finest naval interceptor in the world. I will miss it, dream about it and cry a little each night until I die.

Originally posted by carnival_of_souls2047
The F-14D was the finest naval interceptor in the world. I will miss it, dream about it and cry a little each night until I die.

Besides being too melodramatic you are making claims that you have not yet backed up. Go on, reasonably prove to me that the F-14 was the "finest naval interceptor in the world"...

These jets are not being destroyed for security reasons. They are being destroyed so that legitimate foreign buyers of these aircraft will longer have a long-term source of spare parts (albeit second-hand). This will force the foreign customers to buy NEW jets if they wish to maintain their air forces with US aircraft.

It's all about forced obscelescence.

To the best of my recollection, there aren't "legitimate foreign buyers" for F-14s. There was, at best, a single "legitimate foreign buyer"....Iran. Given the current relationship between the two countries, I don't think the US really gives a flying...errr....feces about supplying them with spare parts, and I seriously doubt that Iran will be buying anything from Grumman. I don't think "planned obsolescence" is the motivator here.

They're paying $900,000 to destroy 23 jets, not per jet.

If it helps keep the parts out of the hands of Iran, then I think it's money well spent.

Originally posted by Golack
Why not just use some of those millions to build a large hanger and store them. The F-14 is still one of the most deadly fighters around.

Oh thats right we are talking about the govt.

You answered that SPOT ON....

You could probably note that the company they gave the Government contract to probably has a relative within the Government.

Just like Halliburton is to Cheney.

BeZerK

Originally posted by djohnsto77
They're paying $900,000 to destroy 23 jets, not per jet.

If it helps keep the parts out of the hands of Iran, then I think it's money well spent.

Whats so wrong with Iran? Please elaborate?

Is the US the only country allowed to have Fighter Jets, Nuclear Technology and so on

BeZerK

Bezerk, you are probably very unfamiliar with the Aeronautics industry and the Military Aircraft industry. There is a lot of politics involved with why Iran will not be receiving parts for F-14's. Their current F-14A fleet is aging and rusting away. They do not possess the spare parts necessary to maintain them. Also they have had these F-14's for a few decades now back when Iran and the US were on good terms.

Right now all that the Iranian Air Force can do to maintain their fleet is actually salvage the parts from other working F-14's and thus the number of total flyable F-14's goes down.

I don't believe there has ever been any other Foreign Client for the F-14. The US Navy has been the sole buyer of F-14's I believe.

Hmm $900,000 to salvage F-14s for usable avionics, sounds like a steal to me. F-14's as capable as they were have been retired now, what else should the government do with them? Should the government continue to pay a crew to maintain the aging fleet when it is not in use? So who's wasting Tax-payer money now?

Shattered OUT...

[edit on 3-7-2007 by ShatteredSkies]