Pacific Stars and Stripes information

For date 680703


Primary service involved, US Air Force
South Vietnam
Description: High Cost of War: $2.4 Mil. Per Copter WASHINGTON (AP) - The weapons of modern warfare have become so expensive the Air Force is now paying $2.4 million for a single rescue helicopter for use in Vietnam. By contrast, during World War II, each B17 Flying Fortress that bombed Germany cost only $190,000 and each B29 that carried the war to Japan cost $635,000. You could have bought 200 World War II fighter planes - the P51 for instance - for the $11 million it now costs the Air Force just for the technical manuals for a single type of aircraft. Hearings on Defense Department procurement released Friday, by the House Appropriations Committee help explain why the Vietnam War has produced such a strain on President Johnson's budget. The Navy is spending $30,000 for a single torpedo and $20.3 million just for ammunition for the battleship New Jersey to fire at Vietnam shore targets. And it wants $51.8 million just for a year's supply of aerial targets. The $2.4 million helicopter the Air Force is now bringing into Vietnam is bigger, faster, and twice as expensive as the Jolly Green Giant that has made such a name for itself in the rescue of pilots. Known as Super Jolly, the new one can carry up to 60 passengers or 18,500 pounds of cargo at 195 knots an hour. The F111 airplane, highly publicized for its costly development program and now being produced for about $8 million each, is far from being the most expensive item on the Air Force books. That honor would appear to belong to the C5A, the world's largest airplane that is specially designed to carry Army combat units and all their equipment. At this stage the unit cost of the C5A is $25 million, and the Air Force wants 120 of them.

The source for this information was 6807PSS.AVN supplied by Les Hines


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Date posted on this site: 05/13/2023