Re: A clearly stated goal

From: Derek Lyons (fairwater_at_gmail.com)
Date: 02/12/05 

Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2005 22:44:18 GMT

Pat Flannery <flanner@daktel.com> wrote:

>>Apollo wasn't so much simple paranoia about the Soviets, it was an
>>attempt to project a sense of power and might globally without resorting
>>to fighting a hot war (the latter posing a rather unattractive option
>>when nuclear weapons are involved).
>
>And give the aerospace firms a huge windfall in government moneys, to
>help salve over the fact that we now had far more B-52s, Polaris, and
>Minuteman missiles than we had any rational need for, and those
>lucrative defense days that had swelled them to enormous size were
>fading.

SLBM production didn't drop until the late 1970's when the A-3/C-3
conversions were complete. (And it didn't stay dropped for long, as
C-4 production ramped up.) Not to mention the varied re-motoring
projects that didn't stop until within the last decade.

Equally big-ticket procurement has never really dropped for the
Minuteman, what with ongoing re-motoring and guidance upgrade
programs.

The B-52 program has provided steady employment for Boeing down to
today with the various upgrades, rebuilds, etc.

Not to mention the massive contracts for ongoing technical support,
spares & documentation, etc.

In short, your argument fails to hold water.

D. 

-- 
Touch-twice life. Eat. Drink. Laugh.
-Resolved: To be more temperate in my postings.
Oct 5th, 2004 JDL