New Navy Warplane Assaults the Taxpayer
Re “Navy’s New Hornet Carries a Bigger Sting Than Predecessor,” July 31: “Sting” is the perfect word to describe the F/A-18E Super Hornet. At $57 million each, it is almost twice the $29-million price tag of its predecessor. For this the Navy gets an extra 4 feet of airplane, which can fly a mere 200 miles farther with only a 20% increase in payload and thrust.
Why does corporate greed upset the average American but not the flagrant waste that continues to pour from the Department of Defense? The older version of the Hornet can still fly circles around anything else made in the rest of the world. What can possibly justify spending $28 million more for each aircraft? This comes to a whopping $140,000 for each additional mile this new Super Hornet can fly. Any sting here is only on the American taxpayer.
Toby Keeler
Topanga
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