US Military Hardware, The best? Options

[*kryogenix*]

I think so. Although I think some countries may have some equipment that is better (Israel comes to mind immediately), as a whole, our military-industrial complex is a force to be reckoned with.

It's funny though, cause unless I'm getting things wrong, it seems like we're still stuck fighting the Cold War. I don't think things like the F/A-22 and more cruise missiles should be made. I don't see the arguement for the F/A-22, if they wanted an untouchable fighter, the USAF would have chosen the YF-23, it seems unnecessary to spend $120 million on something that performs marginally better than the F-15. Speaking of which, in order to get the F/A-22, the airforce tried to make it seem like we were in need of a better fighter by staging a mock battle with the Indian Airforce. The Indians won, and the airforce used it as evidence to support the need for the F/A-22. Of course, the fight was rigged. The F-15's were outnumbered, were not able to use AWACS and had dumbed down technology. Now onto the subject of cruise missiles. They're pretty nifty because you can hit the enemy from thousands of miles away. I think it would be better if we went back to shore bombarding guns and battleships. Although we'd have to get closer to the shore in order to use them, shells are cheaper to produce and guns can deliver more ordnance than cruise missiles. They can also be reloaded at sea, unlike missiles.

So I guess the questions are

1) Do we have the best military?
2) Do you believe that there are kickbacks and pet projects in the military?

[*kryogenix*]

in terms of technology, our military is the best, although barely in some cases.

in terms of amount of technology, our military is the best.

in terms of people- our military isn't that great.

in terms of new ideas- our military isn't that great.

and i certainly do believe there are kickbacks and pet projects in the military.  there are also personal favors and coverups.

I'm not sure if I agree about the new ideas part. We're working on a hypersonic bomber, mechanized suits for infantry and an anti-ballistic missile system. In fact, some of our new ideas may be too creative (like the gay bomb).

Question to you brainchildren (Kryogenix, Acid, Mipadi); how much of our military's technology is developed by Japan?

As far as I know, most of our technology is made by American defense contractors. Names like McDonnel Douglas, Lockheed Martin, Northrupp Grumman, Vought, Raytheon. Maybe we import little things (I think our soldiers use some Panasonic field computers, and I wouldn't be surprised if some of the small electronics and computer chips in our weapons were made in Japan), but I think we use American manufactured weapons for the most part, if not exclusively.

Actually, Japan imports our weapons. They have a destroyer based on our AEGIS system and they operate F-15's.