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Originally Posted by fckm
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Bush-bash:
1) It's not whether he's the one using them. It's about the fact that we have a huge budget deficit, and this falls under the category of frivolous spending.
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Got it. President of the United States should fly around in an ultralight. Check.
How is it frivolous spending? The current choppers are older than most of the people on this forum. They're wearing out, getting prohibitively expensive to maintain, and buying new ones just makes sense.
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Non-Bush-general-helicopter-bash:
2) 23 helocopters. 1 helicopter will cost $265,000,000. That's Two Hundred and Sixty Five Million Dollars. Per helicopter. Contrast this to the recent Airbus A380, which costs $280,000,000. The airbus seats eight hundred, and is a gajillion times bigger than the helicopters, and probably has a comprable avionics package.
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1) its avionics package isn't the issue, it's the other packages. The airbus doesnt' have a direct mobile satellite link to the whitehouse communications room. These helicopters will. The airbus doesn't have chaff or flare dispensers. These helicopters will. The airbus doesn't have IR suppression engines or armor. These helicopters will.
2) the airbus is priced to sell hundreds of units. R&D costs, tooling up costs, and other manufacturing related costs can therefore be spread out among those hundreds of units which brings the final sticker price down a lot. Lockheed will build 23 of these helicopters. That's it. 23. That means much more of the build-cost is assigned to the price of each helicopter.
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3) Why the hell do we need 23 Helicopters? 5, 10, alright, I can see the need for maintainance and whatnot, but 23? Isn't that overdoing it a little?
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We've already explained this many times.
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4) It's not even a Helicopter built with American parts. A large portion of it is farmed off to overseas companies. The President of the United States is riding on a foreign made Helicopter. Wonderful.
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Exactly what is your point? They went with the best design. They gave Sikorsky a shot, and Sikorsky blew it. Sikorsky's big argument was "but ours is made in AMERICA!" which is the same full-of-crap argument GM uses to try and get people to buy inferior cars.
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The 7E7 doesn't actually exist yet.
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Technically you are correct because the 7e7 has been renamed to 787. The prototypes and testbed aircraft already exist and sixty 787's have just been sold to China, so I'd say it pretty much exists.