SUBSCRIBE to Next Media Animation: http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=NMAtv<br /><br />The US Navy is spending money like a drunken sailor on costly weapons systems that are billions of dollars over budget and years behind schedule.<br /><br />Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NMAtv<br />Webpage: http://www.nma.tv/<br />Twitter @nmatv: https://twitter.com/#!/nmatv<br />Tumblr: http://nmatv.tumblr.com/<br /><br />Take, for example, the F-35 Lightning II. The F-35, a product of the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) 5th-generation fighter program, was supposed to save the Pentagon money by providing a common airframe for the Air Force, Navy and Marines to use for different roles. Instead, the program has been plagued by design problems, mismanagement and massive cost overruns. The F-35 is already a decade behind schedule and the program will cost more than Australia's annual GDP.<br /><br />Then there's the Zumwalt class "stealth" destroyer program. The Navy originally planned to buy 32 of these "21st Century Destroyers" to replace its Arleigh Burke-class destroyers. Now it will buy three. The boats — which would feature next-generation technology like lasers and railguns and have a much lower radar profile — are just too expensive. Most of the critical technologies envisioned for them are not even ready yet. The three Zumwalt destroyers will cost US taxpayers about $7 billion each, counting the cost of development. A Chinese admiral has said he could sink them with fishing boats.<br /><br />An alternative to this madness is the so-called Streetfighter idea, which would replace many of the Navy's larger, expensive boats with squadrons of smaller ships at a fraction of the cost.
