George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 29

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F-22A. The ultimate manned fighter jet, conceived in 1969, with production and deployment completed in 2005. Even in 2019, when I lived, it was a legendary fighter that hadn’t relinquished its title as the strongest.

“Please, stop talking crazy.”

No! I’m going to ride it!

“It’s only for testing purposes. It’s a prototype that doesn’t consider actual combat at all.”

The ATF [Advanced Tactical Fighter program] official’s expression was truly volatile. His face was constantly changing from red to blue, and his eyes darted wildly like a madman. Above all, what tormented him was this:

‘This son of a bitch! He said he’d just look! He said it was just an inspection!’

“Did I tell you to put weapons on it now? Or did I say I’m going to the Middle East with this? Shut up and get me the G-suit.”

In fact, I had similar thoughts. I was just going to do a simple inspection and inflate the budget to quickly complete development and deployment. The problem is that my heart completely went ‘thump!’ when I saw that beautiful fuselage.

“I understand that you want to promote the next-generation fighter. That’s the most effective promotion in the Pentagon! But!”

The advantage of this was, ‘Yeah! I’ve tried it!’ The main claim that congressmen make when trying to cut the budget is, ‘How do you know this is as effective as this budget?’ In that case, one word, ‘I’ve ridden it,’ could shut them up completely.

Well, actually, that’s just an excuse, and I really wanted to ride that thing.

Supercar? That’s kid stuff! I’m going to ride a Raptor!

“It’s been under development for decades, and it’s been 11 years since its first flight. And isn’t this a pre-production model? If I succeed in flying it excellently, isn’t that beneficial to you?”

“That’s true, but!”

‘It’s beneficial! It is beneficial, but!’

He feared what would happen in the event of an accident even more than that. Well, if it crashed due to a defect in the aircraft, the guys who maintained this aircraft would be fired at the very least, and a trial would be basic, with jail time as an option. It wasn’t his concern, but Lockheed Martin’s stock would be shattered even more. The F-22 itself would get a dishonorable nickname like ‘President Killer’.

Well, I don’t care about that.

The more I absorbed George Bush’s memories and experiences, the more I could be sure of one thing: George W. Bush possessed a natural talent as a ‘fighter pilot.’ It didn’t take long for my perception to change from simply ‘He seems to be good at it?’ to ‘He’s a genius?’

My small suspicion, which started based purely on feeling, got a hint from a training simulator that I tried for fun out of doubt, and after directly flying F-15s and F-18s, it turned into conviction.

This bastard is a genius. He should have gone to Vietnam as an ace pilot, even if he had to force it, rather than being president! Not the Texas Air National Guard [referred to as the “Champagne Unit” due to its perceived lack of combat duties]!

“Don’t worry. I’ll also have separate flight training from a test pilot for a long time. If there are no flaws in the design and you are confident in the maintenance, no one will be able to criticize you.”

Except for bird strikes or my piloting mistakes! Haha!

So, the point is, ‘Hey, I’ll just use it for a bit and return it!’ I feel like a complete thug when I do this.

“Don’t worry. Just for a moment. I’ll just use it for a very short time and return it! Haha!”

Then I’ll be a thug!

* * *

There was a sense of grim determination on the faces of the personnel at Nellis Air Force Base. Today, a visit from a VIP was scheduled. But the intensity of such a visit is determined by the rank of the VIP coming to inspect, right? And it just so happens that the person coming to inspect this time is none other than the President.

Apparently, he’s visiting the Air Force even when he comes to inspect, since his former service was in the Air National Guard. But no one knew why he was visiting Nellis Air Force Base out of all the many air force bases. Anyway, the President is the President.

Are you starting to get the picture?

From top to bottom, all sorts of preparations had to be made. Fighter jets and bombers were maintained in perfect condition, lined up, and they had to embark on a great adventure through manuals and reports, searching for the puzzle pieces in their heads that existed during their rookie days but have now disappeared.

And finally, the day came.

“Air Force One is entering.”

The control tower seemed to have made a mistake. It said Air Force One was entering, but only the escort aircraft landed. But the form of the escort aircraft was really unfamiliar. Weren’t the escort aircraft for Air Force One F-15s and F-16s?

“Experimental aircraft?”

Actually, it wasn’t the first time they had seen the aircraft type. YF-22. Was it last year or the year before? Everyone remembered hearing that it was entering the production preparation stage. But there shouldn’t be even one accurate story among the stories circulating within the military.

“Has it already started deployment?”

While the pilot was opening the canopy from the escort aircraft that had landed, they could only stare blankly at the new aircraft. They couldn’t bring themselves to open their mouths because of the inspection that would start soon, but a common question was lingering in their minds.

‘What? Where’s Air Force One?’

Even if it’s called Air Force One, Air Force One is the name for the plane the president is riding. It didn’t necessarily have to be a Boeing VC-25A, but at least if he rode it domestically, he would have taken Air Force One, and he wouldn’t have taken another plane. This is because Air Force One or Air Force Two basically have all the measures taken to be able to carry out their duties even if something suddenly happens.

Therefore, in the midst of a subtle flood of questions, only a quiet silence flowed between them.

“P, President!”

Until someone said that.

“What?”

The expressions on everyone’s faces changed from moment to moment as they looked at the pilot’s face. No way! The president is directly flying a new aircraft to come to the inspection! Is this a dream or reality? They were stunned by the very unrealistic sight, and that blank space was soon replaced by excitement.

The fact that the president himself flew in a fighter jet was, in itself, a melting pot of emotion for the pilots. The job of a fighter pilot was a job that was tied to honor rather than money. Especially in a country like the United States that goes to war frequently. How could such pilots not be moved?

Of course, it wasn’t to the extent of ‘Ah, Mr. President! I’m dying for your great figure!’ but it was definitely something to be moved by.

This is only the story of the pilots, and if you go to the staff, it has a slightly different meaning. The current president, George Bush, is from the Champagne Unit. In short, the Air Force was not proudly promoting the fact that the current president was from the Air Force because he had the stigma of having sucked honey in the rear unit.

Now that was possible! Now the news that the president came to Nellis Air Force Base to inspect the new aircraft will be prominently featured in the newspaper!

In fact, it was a very absurd thing from the perspective of preserving national functions, but that was none of the soldiers’ business.

“Wow!!!”

Well, even if they didn’t think so, when faced with such a situation, humans are creatures that are swept away by the atmosphere, so they couldn’t help but agree.

Thus, cheers and applause ran along the runway all at once.

* * *

“It came out well?”

The cover of the newspaper was filled with a picture of me getting out of the F-22A, taking up the entire page.

“Wow, that’s awesome.”

“Please don’t do it again.”

“Okay. Okay. I won’t ride a ‘new aircraft’ for ‘fun’ next time.”

Yeah, new aircraft. Next time, I should try riding a ship or a self-propelled gun. Isn’t that what the President of the United States wants to do at least once? Or not. I’ll do it.

Anyway, by now, everyone should know that I have a great interest in the development of new weapons.

“How is the drone part going?”

“It seems that President is very interested in the Air Force.”

I’d be sad if you thought so.

“I’m also very interested in the Army and Navy.”

The Crusader self-propelled howitzer, NLOS-C [Non-Line-of-Sight Cannon], or the Comanche stealth helicopter. Beaufort airborne tank! Furthermore, even composite rifles or Land Warrior!

OICW [Objective Individual Combat Weapon] and Land Warrior are treated as dark history even in the United States, but there was significance in accumulating technology. Above all, what people keep misunderstanding is that the development itself is not meaningless just because the efficiency does not come out as much as the budget was spent.

Once technology or data is accumulated, it can be useful when developing other technologies or weapons in the future. That meant the starting funds were reduced that much. Also, if it doesn’t seem to work, you can change the direction of development. Of course, this is inefficient. Yeah, in other countries.

‘Not in America.’

However, if the United States, where money is still coming out a lot, can rather allocate more budget to increase performance even more.

A specific example was the engine of the Comanche helicopter. The noise of the engine of the Comanche helicopter was mentioned as a problem with stealth performance. But this could be solved with more budget. Of course, there was also the opinion that reconnaissance attack helicopters were useless due to the rise of reconnaissance drones, but that’s only the story of ‘if you don’t have money,’ and if you have money, the story is different.

The helicopter engine could be replaced, and drones could be used in their own way. In fact, it didn’t have to be used as a reconnaissance aircraft, and only a small number of Comanches could be operated for special operations, and the stealth technology of the Comanche could be applied elsewhere. People are still more accurate than drones.

Land Warrior had the same meaning. The Land Warrior project, which started due to the rise of network-centric warfare, is evaluated as having a short battery life in actual combat and being too heavy to engage in combat properly, and is retired.

However, the size and weight of the battery will be resolved in the future. Eventually, in 2019, the technology accumulated by Land Warrior was integrated into the Future Warrior, a powered suit project, and the Future Warrior project made progress, whether large or small.

Thus, canceled projects are not necessarily just wasting money. That’s what I mean.

However, there was a project that I personally wanted to revive entirely out of ‘personal interest’ completely separate from the above story.

Arsenal Ship. It was a project that ended as a paper plan in 1998, and what was attached to this ship was a simple 500 vertical launch tubes and 500 Tomahawk missiles. This missile battleship could show a single firepower more powerful than any ship at sea.

The plan itself was scrapped because even if only one sank, a huge budget would be blown away, and the then Chief of Naval Operations lost in a factional fight, but isn’t the Republic of Korea Navy aiming to put it into service under the name of Joint Firepower Ship with the goal of deploying it in 2024? What can’t America do again?

Of course, it was a plan put out as a last resort because it didn’t have nuclear weapons, but still, a ship with 500 missiles! Isn’t it a battleship like a dream of the artillery department!

Of course, it would be a problem if it sank, but frankly, is there a ship that doesn’t have a huge budget blown away if it sinks? From the beginning, it was a problem to assume sinking. Isn’t that what Aegis ships are for to protect against sinking? What? There aren’t enough Aegis ships? Then add more Aegis ships. Is the Aegis ship’s protection ability lacking? Then I’ll give you money to modify it more strongly.

Money! Money! Money! In the modern age dominated by capitalism, everything was money!

Without exaggeration, if you have enough money, you can reduce 10 years to 1 year! Is there a lack of field data? If 10 is not enough, 100! If 100 is not enough, just extract data stupidly with 1,000.

This is the power of money! I’ll show you capitalist shock and horror right now!

Well, even so, it was right to cut the projects that had to be cut. The US budget also seemed infinite. It wasn’t actually infinite.

“Hmm.”

I put the list on the desk and looked back and forth, estimating the projects.

It felt like I was looking at a shopping app on my smartphone. It’s the feeling I get when I’m narrowing down the items I want to buy within the limited amount of my card and thinking about making a rational purchase.

Of course, it was a shopping spree worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

But I don’t want to miss everything! Wait, if I invest a little more budget in a few more and finish them quickly, I don’t have to invest money in that project anymore. Of course, production, deployment, and management budgets will be included, but then I can just sell off the old weapons.

Um! I’m very attracted to this miraculous idea. That’s right! I have to do that.

Then I have to pick the guy who will finish development quickly first.

So, what should I choose!