Tomahawk cruise missile
The U.S. Department of Defense spends $1.5 million each on the Tomahawk cruise missile. On March 19, the first day of the war on Libya, America fired 112 of these missiles. That was $168 million of taxpayer money that could have been used for something productive, say education or diplomacy. That was in one day!
Here is the DOD Procurement Budget for FY 2011:
Type the word “missile” in the pdf toolbar and search.
Or just go to page N-10 and N-10A in the document, which appears as pages 84-85 in your browser window. Notice that we spent $1.052 billion in 2010 on modifications to 24 Trident II missiles. We are doing the same thing for FY 2011.
Notice that we bought 196 Tomahawk missiles in FY 2010 for $276 million and we are buying another 196 in FY 2011 for $300 million. That is an increase of $24 million, or an increase of 8.7% in one year.
Go to page A7 which is page 18 in your browser and look at the Patriot System Summary. Notice that in FY 2010 we bought 58 of these for $341 million and in FY 2011 we are going to buy 78 of them for $480 million. That is an increase from $5.88 million per missile to $6.15 million, an increase of 4.7% in one year for a missile that has already been researched, developed and built.
