XM-25 Rifle

[RedBaron]

Looks ugly as fuck. I would hate to be the pack mule to have to carry that on the field.

[DarkHalo003]

I thought the UN determined bullets similar to the "dummy bullet" inhumane or something like that. I can't imagine this weapon ever seeing combat though; the U.S. always creates prototypes but seldom sends them off completed. Just my two cents though.

[Warsaw]

We have 12,500 on the way to Afghanistan. I guess they will be seeing combat.

Let me get this straight: they can dump millions of dollars on this piece of shit and its over-expensive ammunition, but not spend more to acquire better body armour? What the fuck? Hell, a simple re-chambering of all our M16s and M4s to 6.5 Grendel or 6.8 SPC would be more beneficial than this.

[Kornman00]

The US gov't doesn't just dump millions, it dumps billions into bunk military equipment and programs. But the gov't aren't the only ones to blame. You can add contractors to that list too. The only way to be a successful contractor in today's gov't is to milk it for every penny and half-cent it's worth. The only way to do that is to develop piss poor tech that only you, the contractor, can maintain and continue to "develop". The only way to do that is to be a fucking asshole. The only way to do that is to be an over-patriotic American or money mongering twit.

In a way, China is the one getting left with the bills when it comes to our military spending. Let's hear it for China!

I was gonna say that, but I kept the inner troll silent

Someone must have had their vicodin today then

[TVTyrant]

What Korn says is mostly truth, but there is no real way to fix the problem. If we went to a low bid contract system, it would only insure that the US gov't would receive terrible products. One way we could do it is 1930s style, where companies developed with their own cash, but the amount of money it cost would be enormous, and manufacturers could make tons off of civilian sales anyways. Just my two cents...

[Warsaw]

Or the military could say: "We want this with this result. Whoever comes up with the best take gets our money." If I'm not mistaken, they contract BEFORE getting a finished product based on what the contractor is promising, which means a fuckton of money goes out the window.

[DarkHalo003]

Or the military could say: "We want this with this result. Whoever comes up with the best take gets our money." If I'm not mistaken, they contract BEFORE getting a finished product based on what the contractor is promising, which means a fuckton of money goes out the window.

You think this is how it would work, but I guess there are too many bros up in the military HQ and Washington for anything decently organized to occur. I was pretty sure there were like three different types of Body Armor out for prototyping, one of which is Dragon Armor or something that's supposed to be really good.

[paladin]

The US gov't doesn't just dump millions, it dumps billions into bunk military equipment and programs. But the gov't aren't the only ones to blame. You can add contractors to that list too. The only way to be a successful contractor in today's gov't is to milk it for every penny and half-cent it's worth. The only way to do that is to develop piss poor tech that only you, the contractor, can maintain and continue to "develop". The only way to do that is to be a fucking asshole. The only way to do that is to be an over-patriotic American or money mongering twit.

In a way, China is the one getting left with the bills when it comes to our military spending. Let's hear it for China!


Someone must have had their vicodin today then

I was talking with my dad (Works at Boeing, Everett), he said that over the past 20 years, Boeing alone has been paid something like 20 billion just for R&D for the military. Some of the shit he showed me (stuff never released) was pretty cool.

also yes I did

[TeeKup]

Most people don't know it but both Boeing and Lockheed Martin also have heavy investments in other civilian aerospace (other than standard commercial airliners). I know Lockheed Martin also contracts out to NASA, most of the time however people just know them as Defense contractors because that's where the majority of their activity is.

On a side note, I really haven't heard of Northrop Grumman in a while, are they still in the game?

E: Took a look and it seems they still are, they just haven't been very vocal about, at least I haven't heard any recent activity.

[Limited]

Pretty sure US Government have a 3 billion contract with an English company, just for sniper rifles. Doesn't surprise me that they spend so much on arms, US is known for its military power. Plus they have the most enemies.