The Indelible Bonobo Experience

Renaissance Monkey: in-depth expertise in Jack-of-all-trading. I mostly comment on news of interest to me and occasionally engage in debates or troll passive-aggressively. Ask or Submit 2 mah authoritah! ;) !

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WORLDWIDE military spending was flat in 2011 compared with the year before, according to data released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a think-tank, but this masks some significant changes. America, Western Europe and Latin America, which between them make up 65% of the global total of $1.634 trillion (at 2010 prices), all spent less than they had in 2010. This is the first time America made a year-on-year reduction since 1998, trimming its budget by 1.2% to $690 billion. To keep the total flat, there were some big rises elsewhere. Russia’s spending increased by 9.3% to $64.1 billion, which may have had something to do with the build-up to the presidential election earlier this year. It is now the third biggest spender worldwide, ahead of both France and Britain. (via Daily chart: Bangs and bucks | The Economist) ..look at Swaziland go.. :)

WORLDWIDE military spending was flat in 2011 compared with the year before, according to data released by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, a think-tank, but this masks some significant changes. America, Western Europe and Latin America, which between them make up 65% of the global total of $1.634 trillion (at 2010 prices), all spent less than they had in 2010. This is the first time America made a year-on-year reduction since 1998, trimming its budget by 1.2% to $690 billion. To keep the total flat, there were some big rises elsewhere. Russia’s spending increased by 9.3% to $64.1 billion, which may have had something to do with the build-up to the presidential election earlier this year. It is now the third biggest spender worldwide, ahead of both France and Britain. (via Daily chart: Bangs and bucks | The Economist)

..look at Swaziland go.. :)

Posted in military spending arms race russia budget army armament
Vid Post

nationalpost:

Vimy Ridge marked Canada’s birth as a nation, G-G says on 95th aniversary of battle
The Battle of Vimy Ridge marked “the birth of a nation” for Canada, says Governor-General David Johnston.

Johnston and a Canadian delegation of politicians and 5,000 students gathered at the Canadian National Vimy Memorial in France Monday afternoon to commemorate the 95th anniversary of the surprising and striking victory for Canada’s military.

The brutal Easter Monday battle killed more than 3,500 Canadians and wounded scores more, according to Veterans Affairs Canada, but was a turning point for the Allies in the First World War and a key moment in Canada’s military identity.

“In many ways it was the birth of a nation. It was the first time Canadians fought together shoulder to shoulder,” Johnston told Postmedia News Monday from Vimy, France. “Not as a subordinate unit in the British army, but on our own.” (Photos: Pascal Rossignol/Reuters)

Why does the birth of a nation need to be bloody? Why wouldn’t insulin or the telephone qualify?

Posted in canada birth founding war vimy ridge david johnston david johnston military army | 55 notes
Vid Post

theatlantic:

Why Can’t the Air Force Build an Affordable Plane?

By all accounts, the Air Force’s track record of making bombers the country can afford is dismal. The B-1 program was cancelled mid-stream by the Carter administration after its cost doubled, then revived under President Reagan. The B-2 grew so costly in the early 1990s that the Pentagon ended up buying just a fifth of the aircraft originally planned. 

The B-2s are actually not used much now, partly because few targets justify risking aircraft that cost $3 billion apiece in today’s dollars, and partly because their flights by some estimates cost$135,000 per hour — almost double that of any other military airplane.

The Air Force says the new bomber is slated to cost roughly $55 billion, or about $550 million a plane — less than a quarter of the price of the B-2. If costs rise, “we don’t get a program,” Air Force chief of staff Gen. Norton Schwartz recently told reporters, citing a 2009 warning by then-Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, an airpower skeptic, as Gates cancelled an earlier attempt to build a new bomber.

One of the skeptics is Tom Christie, the Pentagon’s chief weapons tester from 2001 until his retirement in 2005. He says that if $550 million per copy is the target, “you’re talking $2 billion by the time they build the damn thing …. How many times [have] we been through this with bombers? And look where we end up.”

“Besides, what do we need it for?”

Read more. [Image: Center for Public Integrity]

it’s worth repeating that initially Eisenhower was going to talk about the congressional-industrial-military complex, but dropped the former because toward the end of his presidency he had a good relationship with the Capitol

Posted in industrial-military complex capitol congress democracy usa representative democracy corruption lobbying boeing northrop lockheed bombers military army us air force pentagon | 151 notes