Should the US Pentagon pay a private contractor $900,000 to shred outdated F-14 fighter jets?

Yes

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by Dan Blade

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Often the government pays private contractors a sum of money to do work for them to alleviate the burden off government employees. This is often cost-effective because for some kinds of tasks, the government is not equipped to do the job themselves and it can be less expensive to hire someone to do the work who has all the necessary equipment.

In the situation of outdated F-14 fighter jets, the U.S. should pay a private contractor to shred these aircraft. Shredding these fighter jets, also known as Tomcats, will protect the U.S. and its allies from the ever having to face this powerful aircraft in any potential future conflicts.

In an ideal world the F-14s would be decommissioned and placed in an aircraft boneyard or sent to museums. This way the fighters would be ready to be refurbished if the need for them arose, rather than seeing them permanently destroyed by a private contractor. But unfortunately with the continuous changing political alignments, this is far from the ideal world, and it is risky to keep these jets intact.

Currently such a boneyard does exist at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, AZ. The area consists of many fleets of older aircraft and abandoned prototypes, but in the case of the F-14's it is not a good idea to leave the jets intact. A better plan is to destroy them because if these jets are left intact it leaves a risky temptation for U.S. politicians to sell them to other countries during negotiations. If this were to occur, it could prove to be a very dangerous decision.

The reason for this is there is no guarantee political climates will not change and politicians in the United States might opt to use the large F-14 fleet to placate, in essence buy out, potential enemies by shipping them in pieces or the whole fleet. Once the control of these still high-class fighter aircraft is lost, there is no telling what country or group that they would be sold or given to in the future.

As a result the U.S. or its allies could eventually end up facing these U.S. built fighters in a time of conflict or war. Imagine having to watch a news report of a civilian airliner being shot down by U.S. built Tomcats which had earlier been sold to a country who is an adversary of the U.S. or one of its allies.

Alternatively, the Pentagon could examine the feasibility of other options to reduce the fleet of the F-14 Tomcats. They could consider re-commissioning the aircraft and making them viable aircraft for Air National Guard units. Another option would be to strip them and sell them as spare parts to other allied nations. Not only would this discard of the fighter jets, but it would generate revenue in the process.

Either one of these options would save money in the budget rather than spend it. The money spent destroying these great war birds is not a significant expenditure in the budget for U.S. government or Department of Defense because it would save them a lot more money doing it this way than destroying them using government resources. Generally there is often sluggish movement with government programs due to the bureaucracy involved, and when looking at it from that perspective spending $900,000 to destroy these aircraft is a bargain.

In an attempt to destroy the jets themselves, the U.S. government should be responsible for the complete operation, which would include the personnel, equipment, the organization and the permits which would probably reach the billion dollar mark. The use of contractors will relieve the U.S government of the administrative and logistical burdens which would be placed on a private company that can shift personnel and equipment with ease.

As the shredding job is complex, assuming the U.S Government could complete the job in 10 years, what happens to those government employees? They can't be fired for completing a job and now the government is stuck with an F-14 shredder and no F-14s left to shred. Something will certainly prevent using the equipment for another project. In short you can't shred an F-18A aircraft or AH-1 helicopter with an F-14 shredder. The shredder is an expense that the taxpayer would have to foot and it would be a sunk cost since it can't be recouped, the money spent on the shredder is essentially lost. Shifting that cost to a contractor is good financial sense.

Shredding the F-14 Tomcats will enviably protect the U.S. and its allies from the ever changing whims of U.S. politicians. In essence, preventing these powerful weapons being used against the U.S. and its allies at a later date. Shredding these fighter jets is a necessary evil to properly dispose of these aircraft. That reason alone justifies the cost in shredding the F-14 Tomcats.

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