I've been in the air force since 1991 and I have seen a lot of changes. Some for the better, most for the worse. By the look of things, it is going to get a lot worse. Over the last 20 years, I have seen the number of aircraft and uniformed personnel cut drasticaly. Today the air force has about half the number of permanent bases, uniformed personnel, and aircraft as it had 20 years ago.


Would it be reasonable to presume that our airforce would now be operating at half the cost before considering the inflated cost of more advanced weapon systems? Yes, but is it? No.


Here's one reason why, and I think many other people who have served a long time would agree with me on this. Civilian contractors. Consider the cost of recruiting, training, and deploying an army or airforce supply specialist to any base in the middle east then compare that cost to a civilian contractor working for the Department of Defense making hundreds of thousands of dollars PER YEAR doing the same thing there now. I think the tax payers would prefer to have two or more uniformed personnel available to perform a specific job for the price of one civilian personnel.


Civil Engineers. In the military, a uniformed civil engineer digs ditches, erects buildings and shelters, is an electrician, or plumber, etcetera. In the early 1950's air force civil engineers built an air force base in greenland. It was nuclear powered, most of the facilities were built under the ice sheet. This air force base was fully operational in only six freaking months!!!


Not too long ago, a civilian contractor was paid tens of thousands of dollars to dig a small water runoff retention pond on our base. It took them over a year to dig a 20' by 30' by 4' deep pond that collected rain water from our parking lot. This pond was supposed to be built to prevent any possible fuel spills from polluting a creek. We (our base) wanted this retention pond to be concrete and completely leak proof. They put a plastic tarp down, taped some seams, then left with the money they were paid. It does not hold water. The off base DOD organization that paid for this work does not seem to care at all. The latest word from them(over a year ago) was that the same contractor will be paid again to build a concrete retention pond.


These are few examples of a tremendous amount of money wasted by our government each year. Why, over the last 20 years, have we heard from our government that the number of uniformed personnel will be cut to save money, only to have those uniformed personnel replaced with much more expensive civilian contractors?

 

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Recently, a person in my shop who used to work in supply, applied for a civilian contract job in the middle east doing the same supply job he used to do in the military at over 4 times the pay. A uniformed army or air force supply specialist had his job cut in the name saving money, only to be replaced by a civilian contractor doing the same job at four times the cost to us tax payers. WTF??

 

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Well said. It was always sad watching someone getting paid 3x what a sailor was getting paid to install evaps on my last ship, then deploying with 100 less people than the same ship would have 10 years ago.

 

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The US spends more than most of the world. It seriously needs to cut its military budget stop having so many costly wars.

 

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private business = good
capitalism = good


you people just need to get used to it and realise that the corporate raping and fleecing of america is here to stay.

 

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Because everyone has been sold on the idea that our so-called free market capitalism should apply to everything. Why let the government do it inefficiently, when the free market obviously does it better? They've privatized many former functions of the military because everyone was told it was more efficient.

 

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Because the purpose of your military is not to defend you (well that too) but to make rich people more rich. Duh.

 

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The funny thing is when the US finally spends way less on its military in response US allies will have to spend way, way more on theirs

 

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Outsource your wars to India or China...You can get like zillion angry chinese to do your bidding with tenth of the costs!

 

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You have to also realize if a contractor (translator, ditch digger, etc..) is paid a 150k, thats not by the govt. the govt is paying another contracting company to source these people in. That contracting company helps with paying for security clearance.

Thats means - based on what i know about 3rd party consulting- the company getting the real contract is getting 60% minimum of the cost. So a 150k pay means the government is paying 320k or more .