Your Tax Dollars At Work

I shot this rather nice view of an F-16D on a pre-delivery acceptance test flight at Lockheed-Martin, over in Ft. Worth, a couple of weeks ago.  This aircraft, s/n 9822, is destined for the Egyptian Air Force, and is one of 20 new build F-16Cs and Ds that are currently being manufactured/delivered.

Guess what?  You're paying for them.

You've probably heard about that 3 billion or so in annual military aid that the US is supplying Egypt?  Well, these highly advanced aircraft are part of that aid package.  Your tax dollars, not the Egyptian government, are paying for them.

The contract for these aicraft was made in 2009, under the previous, pro-US, regime.  When the unrest hit that country, our government and the Pentagon fought to keep the military aid package intact and on schedule, in order to keep the Egyptian Generals friendly to us.  Well, guess what?  The Generals' power has pretty much been neutered.  We are delivering state of the art aircraft and other weapons systems to a nation whose government is now controlled by radicals of the Mulsim Brotherhood.  Doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me ...

I think it would have been prudent to put a HOLD on deliveries of this type of equipment, to see how things ultimately shake out in Egypt.  As it is, we probably are giving a shit pile of military goodies to folks who don't think very highly of us (or our ally Israel).  One more VERY questionable decision by the Obama Administration ...

Update, Dec. 11 - the mainstream media has finally gotten wind of this, and public outrage is building.  Problem is that almost all of the 20 planes in the order have already been delivered!