George Bush’S Great America [EN]: Chapter 342

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“That’s… Yes, that’s right. But Lockheed Martin is developing the X-35, so it will be deployed soon. At the latest, the mass-produced version will be first deployed to the Idaho Air Force Base next year.”

“Next year, huh? I heard there were a lot of problems. What’s going on?”

“Lockheed Martin is already aware of the problems and is confident that they can be fixed soon. The Air Force shares the same view.”

In reality, Lockheed Martin’s engineers were being worked to the bone, so to speak. This was due to problems that arose from incorporating all sorts of new technologies. In fact, these were problems that time could solve, rather than problems that could be solved by overworking people.

“I know the military’s specialty is to introduce things first and then gradually fix them, but this is going to be difficult. I’ll just allocate additional budget, so push it through with quantity. If ten tests are needed, just make ten engines. If the software development speed is slow, hire 100 people to make the software, or do whatever it takes.”

“I’m sorry, Mr. President.”

“I’ll ask again, so make it clear. Develop that fighter jet as if ‘I’m going to fly it.’ Really, will there be no problems next year?”

“The President is… flying it. Uh, um.”

I stuttered without realizing it. If it were another president, I would have just brushed it off and prepared to protect my position and shift responsibility in case of an emergency, but this guy would almost certainly try to fly it himself.

Wasn’t that the case with the F-22? At the time, I was grateful that the President was able to silence the media and Congress who were questioning the F-22, but the F-35 is different. Unlike the F-22, the F-35 is still a pain.

There was a very small chance that the engine could explode. Originally, fighter jet engines are always clamoring for new models, but this F-35 engine is truly a perfect new model, and that’s all thanks to the vertical take-off and landing function.

Everyone knew that Lockheed Martin’s claim of ‘F-16 price’ from the beginning was just business talk. If it was the price of an F-16 while being packed with all sorts of new technologies, they would have even conducted an audit of those new technologies.

When the price doubled, there was considerable controversy from Congress and the public, but soon after they realized that even that was a pipe dream, the Congress, which had been lightly criticizing, began to put on the brakes in earnest.

Due to the exponentially inflated price and the continuous accidents, the participating countries were testing the waters. They wouldn’t suddenly pull out, but they could reduce the number of units introduced or switch to competitive bidding, citing budget issues.

The Air Force, not the Congress, didn’t care how things were going abroad, but what was certain was that the F-35 had come too far to be canceled by these events.

“Then I trust that all problems will be resolved by next year.”

“I understand. I’ll pass that on to them. The development team will have a hard time.”

Would they only have a hard time? Maybe they’ll hold a strike demonstration in front of the Pentagon and the White House with signs that say ‘Strike.’ If you try to do something in one year that should be solved over several years, it will inevitably be sloppy, and if it’s sloppy, there’s no way there won’t be problems with the fighter jet.

“Then send an audit to Pratt & Whitney.”

“Yes?”

“We need to solve the engine problem, don’t we? That’s not the only problem with the engine, but we can still solve one of them.”

Why Pratt & Whitney all of a sudden? I didn’t know what the problem was, but one thing was certain: the ‘President’ was now demanding an ‘audit’ of ‘Pratt & Whitney.’

With just these three words, Pratt & Whitney deserved to be audited, and if problems arose in the process, they deserved to be torn to pieces.

“I understand.”

“I don’t have time today, so I’ll end it here, but next time I won’t let it go this easily. If you all want to keep your jobs, don’t do it sloppily, do it right. And do it right. I’ll inspect everything myself.”

The President was driving them like a professor examining a graduate student’s thesis. Those who were old and whose status was second to none couldn’t have felt good about this attitude.

Thus, everyone’s feelings were as follows.

“Fuck!”

And that was the same for Bush, the president who was pushing them hard.

“Nothing is working properly!”

“You’re too excited. If that desk was the Resolute Desk [the President’s desk in the Oval Office], it would have been smashed by now. I like that black desk today.”

If it were wood, especially a relic over 100 years old, it would have been shattered to pieces by now. And he would have been criticized as much as he had broken it.

“If there were no corruption in the world, humanity would be dominating this galaxy by now. Damn it.”

“Maybe so. Still, the M2001 Crusader [a self-propelled howitzer] is reasonably useful, isn’t it?”

“Yeah, right. Is it reasonable to have a rate of fire of 10 rounds per minute at that insane price? I’d rather lower the price and deploy two more. If the performance is that low at that price, something must be wrong. If you start lowering it to match the unit price, there’s no end to it.”

“Then how about deploying only a small number instead of a full deployment? It’s for homeland defense anyway, isn’t it?”

The M2001 Crusader was not just a self-propelled gun, but a heavy self-propelled gun. Specifically, it weighed 48 tons, which is almost twice the weight of the Paladin.

The only self-propelled gun with comparable weight that Bush knew of was the K-9 self-propelled gun, which would be developed in Korea in the future. Well, there might be more if you look for them, but anyway, it’s something that can be deployed and used, not something that can be dispatched overseas.

“Chief of Staff, do you think the United States will be a safe country forever?”

“At least for the next few decades, wouldn’t it be?”

In reality, that was likely to be the case. In the first place, the countries that could start a war with the United States were too busy taking care of themselves. But were World War I and World War II wars that the great powers agreed to have because they were doing well and thought it would be fun to have a war?

Moreover, Germany started World War II, but was Germany in good shape throughout World War II? They were a weak country even before the war started. Frankly, France collapsed so miserably, bewildered, and futilely that Germany couldn’t even dare to compete.

So where in the world is there a guarantee that the United States will not follow a similar path?

“Then are you going to hold out with old Paladins [an older self-propelled howitzer] until then? Rather than hoping it will be resolved by then, I’d rather resolve it now.”

“If the President wants it, I won’t stop you, but it’s also true that the budget is slowly creaking, as Congress says.”

It was still tight, but there was still some room to spare. Even if it’s old, it’s still valuable. No matter what, it’s the United States. It’s the only superpower in the world. It’s not like it’s struggling because it doesn’t have a budget.

“Is it because of the war?”

In fact, it was also somewhat true that he was slowly being seen as a warmonger by Congress. The citizens were still on Bush’s side, but they weren’t so happy.

To be precise, it wasn’t ‘war’ itself, but the troops being dispatched to various parts of the world, but Congress seemed to want to focus on domestic issues rather than foreign affairs.

Even so, the reason why so much power was still being projected overseas was because the Vice President was controlling Congress in various ways. And the Vice President was controlled by the President. That’s why Bush was able to move Congress and the country as he wanted, even while taking a lot of flak.

“If we can solve China, we’ll be able to do something.”

“Well, if we can solve China, there will be a lot of troops to withdraw from here and there. When that happens, there will be many countries begging us to stay, even if they have to pay us.”

In fact, this was why things were going relatively smoothly in Congress. If unilaterally persuading and the henchmen accepting it is called going smoothly.

And it wasn’t just the United States that was experiencing problems. South Korea, the embodiment of defense corruption, was suffering all sorts of humiliation, such as the engine of a newly commissioned destroyer exploding on its own, and even Europe, where all the developed countries are gathered, was experiencing the same problems as the United States.

In fact, in the case of the United States, the only thing that could be called ‘fatal’ was the F-35, which the Army, Navy, and Air Force were working on together, but in the case of Europe, it wasn’t just the Army, Navy, and Air Force, but several countries needed different things, so the developers were just screaming.

This situation was well reflected in the Eurofighter [a multirole fighter jet], which was being improved in an attempt to make use of it somehow. Because the Eurofighter was a mess from the beginning, the improvements were also a mess.

That’s why there was talk here and there about abandoning the Eurofighter altogether and designing a new successor. And in fact, in the case of the United Kingdom, they half-rejected the Eurofighter and waited for the F-35, while expressing their willingness to develop a new fighter jet.

In any case, there were many problems with the Eurofighter that needed to be improved, but the biggest problems were ‘high maintenance costs’ and ‘low reliability.’

However, the low reliability was being gradually resolved through a major overhaul that was almost like rebuilding it, saying that there was nothing that money couldn’t do. From the perspective of the companies, it was clearly a deficit, but the EU itself was sticking to it and pouring resources to keep it alive.

However, as much as they were pouring money into it, there was no way to solve the high maintenance costs. To solve this problem, they had to change the design of the fighter jet’s frame from the ground up, but that was not easy.

However, the biggest problem was the year of deployment. The Eurofighter’s deployment began in 2003. In other words, it was a relatively new product that had not even been in operation for five years. Unless it was 10 years later, they would have to continue using it somehow because they would be too regretful of the sunk costs they had invested in it to abandon it and pick something new.

However, the United Kingdom wanted to replace that position with the F-35 while enduring the sunk costs. In short, the United Kingdom, which holds more than 30% of the shares, wanted to withdraw from the Eurofighter. No one wanted to invest in a stock that a major shareholder was trying to withdraw from.

The EU and the UK were increasingly at odds.