Understand the acquisition money excuse, but if you fly 100k flt hours a year, and the Lakota costs 3x as much per hour, how many years would you have to fly to pay for a new fleet at $3M per for a good SE helicopter? Its about total ownership costs.
The commercial helicopter industry understands this and has figured out a way to make it into a REAL business. Hence the boom over the past 10 years. Its TIME DoD learned a few lessons like this. Acquisition costs are only the begining and typically smaller than the total lifecycle costs. JSF is a perfect example. The big aquisition number will seem small compared to what it costs to operate and maintain them over +30 years.
All the services are geared toward the easiest solution instead the best solution, which may actually take some inginutiy and work to accomplish. But its only taxpayer $$$$ right?
Last edited by Stinger10; 19th Feb 2014 at 15:17.