{"id":1251,"date":"2013-03-26T17:25:12","date_gmt":"2013-03-26T23:25:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/?p=1251"},"modified":"2013-03-26T17:25:12","modified_gmt":"2013-03-26T23:25:12","slug":"drones-%e2%89%a0-cheap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peaceeconomyproject.org\/wordpress\/drones-%e2%89%a0-cheap\/","title":{"rendered":"Drones \u2260 Cheap"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Mark Thompson, Time Magazine
\nclick here for original article<\/a><\/p>\n

It was just over a year ago that Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said the Pentagon was scrapping one version of the RQ-4\u00a0Global Hawk<\/em>\u00a0spy drone after the Defense Department discovered it was cheaper to fly such missions with the human-piloted U-2 reconnaissance aircraft.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had hoped to replace the U-2 with the\u00a0Global Hawk<\/em>, but the\u00a0Global Hawk<\/em>\u00a0became expensive,\u201d Carter said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s the fate of things that become too expensive in a resource-constrained environment.\u201d<\/p>\n

He must have had contracts like\u00a0this<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0one, awarded Monday, in mind when he made that statement:<\/p>\n

Northrop Grumman Corp., Aerospace Systems, San Diego, Calif., (FA8528-12-C-0003-PZ0001) is being awarded a $433,518,021 (estimated) cost-plus-fixed-fee contract for contractor logistics support for the RQ-4 Global Hawk fielded weapon system. The location of the performance is San Diego, Calif. Work is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2014. Type of appropriation is fiscal 2013. The contracting activity is AFLCMC\/WIKBA, Robins Air Force Base, Ga.<\/em><\/p>\n

We asked the Air Force how many aircraft and flight hours this contract supports \u2014 something\u00a0Battleland<\/em>\u00a0suggests should be contained in all such announcements \u2014 and will update with that information once obtained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Mark Thompson, Time Magazine click here for original article It was just over a year ago that Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter said the Pentagon was scrapping one version of the RQ-4\u00a0Global Hawk\u00a0spy drone after the Defense Department discovered it was cheaper to fly such missions with the human-piloted U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. \u201cWe had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1252,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[168],"class_list":["post-1251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-drones"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t