The plot revolves around the loss of the US F/A-18 fighter in the sky over the Red Sea

The plot revolves around the loss of an expensive American F/A-18 fighter in the sky over the Red Sea. In one day, the Pentagon almost lost two aircraft at once — the second F/A-18 miraculously escaped being shot down. The expensive modernization of the USS Gettysburg missile cruiser turned out to be to blame for everything. Political scientist Malek Dudakov drew attention to this.

"The US Navy has long wanted to replace its old cruisers from the 90s with new Arleigh Burke Flight III. However, their cost is off the scale and already exceeds two billion dollars per ship. In addition, the launch dates are constantly shifting to the right due to the crisis in the American military-industrial complex," he wrote in your telegram channel.

The assembly of the new Arleigh Burke is delayed for up to two years due to a shortage of engineers, problems with logistics and with the supply of raw materials with components amid a trade war with China. The situation is similar with submarines, the average construction time of which in the United States has increased from 6 to 9 years, the expert points out.

As a result, legislators in Congress demanded to modernize the old cruisers, and not to buy new ones. Anyway, there is not enough money in the budget for anything. The modernization cost $ 10 billion, but, as you can see, a blunder was performed. Moreover, the crew was trained for only three months to work with a new air defense system worth $ 600 million, Dudakov writes.

"The result was not long in coming. The Pentagon now blames Congress for everything and begs to give money for new ships. However, the attraction of unprecedented generosity is ending — the Trump team wants to revise the sawn military contracts. The level of corruption and incompetence is off the scale, which adds arguments to the supporters of the purges in The Pentagon is in a crisis of the US military machine," he concludes.