DisgustedMonger wrote:

I was watching a 'crop' in Humbold County, CA, in the early 80's and was standing near the top of a hill one day when I heard a slight "whoosh, whoosh" for about three seconds before a helicopter came over the hill, scaring the living shit out of me. I imagine that in the 15 or so years since then, the govt has managed to make them invisible, as well.

The GAO reports that the B-2 stealth bomber cannot fly in the rain, which transforms stealth technology into junk. Moreover, the fragile machine needs strict atmospheric control in the hangar or its skin rots and delicate innards peter out, and because there are none of the luxurious digs overseas, the plane cannot be deployed closer to targets, thereby limiting its threat. The problem is apparently unsolvable for less than the cost of the plane itself, so they've got to be pickled and coddled indefinitely or thrown away. http://jya.com/nsiad-97-181.txt Once armaments, tactics and strategy were battle-tested by using them for war, now with high-price simulation being widely deployed to save money, it's pretty certain that the price of war games will eventually rise to cost exactly the same as an actual war, indeed will make war a cheaper alternative. What's a wonder is that GAO never finds serious fault with any of the government programs it judiciously investigates. Instead, after due research, request for comments from those investigated, and fair deliberation, the somewhat tawdry matters at hands merely require additional funding for fine tuning and keep the congressional sponsors happy to fund the programs, the watch-dogs and shrewdly voting taxpayers doing what needs to be done to complain and bank their cut, short 10% for all the world's sterling leaders. Jeez, is this a California dream of virtual reality war games forever or the bleeding edge of the future set in motion at the dawn of: making peace, making war, what's the diff so long as me and mine never get drafted, never take the actual hit, never wake up dead?