I have got a strange feeling about the EFSF's budget on weapon development

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False Prophet
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I have got a strange feeling about the EFSF's budget on weapon development

So, we've discussed how much does an MS cost before in this forum. Reading through that old threat suddenly gave me a strange thought - that the EFSF suffers from a chronic case of overbudgeting when it comes to weapon development.

How many prototypes and limited-production MS did the EFSF (plus the Titans, Londo Bell, and League Militaire) produced? How many of them had come to the mass-production stage? How much did these one-offs contributed to the overall states of wars?

I know, I know that in the early age of jet fighters, there are literary dozens of prototypes being produced in both sides of the Iron Curtain. Heck, even the USAF cycled through almost a dozen of combat jet aircrafts (fighters+interceptor+attacks+...) until reaching a relatively stable rooster in the early 90s.

But if you look into the time period after the OYW, it seems to me that the EFSF inundated itself at every given moments with dozens of different MS development projects, some of which did exactly the same thing currently fufilled by existing models, while others were without clear goals (for example, why ressurecting the expensive (to produce) G-Line program even though they would eventually settle for something as simple as GMII, Gabaldy Beta, and Hi-Zack?)

A more cynical mind would think that in some of these cases, Anaheim played its own subdisaries against each other in a grand Revolving Door scheme (think the F-35 right now with the cases of corruption and military officers becoming "advisors" after retiring) so as to maximize its profits, which essentially was taxpayers' money.
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JEFFPIATT
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Re: I have got a strange feeling about the EFSF's budget on weapon development

False Prophet wrote: Sat Dec 23, 2017 11:16 am So, we've discussed how much does an MS cost before in this forum. Reading through that old threat suddenly gave me a strange thought - that the EFSF suffers from a chronic case of overbudgeting when it comes to weapon development.

How many prototypes and limited-production MS did the EFSF (plus the Titans, Londo Bell, and League Militaire) produced? How many of them had come to the mass-production stage? How much did these one-offs contributed to the overall states of wars?

I know, I know that in the early age of jet fighters, there are literary dozens of prototypes being produced in both sides of the Iron Curtain. Heck, even the USAF cycled through almost a dozen of combat jet aircrafts (fighters+interceptor+attacks+...) until reaching a relatively stable rooster in the early 90s.

But if you look into the time period after the OYW, it seems to me that the EFSF inundated itself at every given moments with dozens of different MS development projects, some of which did exactly the same thing currently fufilled by existing models, while others were without clear goals (for example, why ressurecting the expensive (to produce) G-Line program even though they would eventually settle for something as simple as GMII, Gabaldy Beta, and Hi-Zack?)

A more cynical mind would think that in some of these cases, Anaheim played its own subdisaries against each other in a grand Revolving Door scheme (think the F-35 right now with the cases of corruption and military officers becoming "advisors" after retiring) so as to maximize its profits, which essentially was taxpayers' money.
really the peak of that was during the zeta era by the Titans task force. They hogged the EFSF dev budget on every prototype they could approve. but by CCA and the UC 100's the miltary moves to almost non existent spending with the budget being spent keeping the RGM-89 units in service with little going to getting an replacement in to full production.
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Seto Kaiba
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Re: I have got a strange feeling about the EFSF's budget on weapon development

False Prophet wrote: Sat Dec 23, 2017 11:16 am I have got a strange feeling about the EFSF's budget on weapon development
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False Prophet wrote: Sat Dec 23, 2017 11:16 am So, we've discussed how much does an MS cost before in this forum. Reading through that old threat suddenly gave me a strange thought - that the EFSF suffers from a chronic case of overbudgeting when it comes to weapon development.
Has any source actually put a price tag on a "typical" Mobile Suit in the Universal Century? It's so rare for a mecha anime to do that. Even Macross, whose creators are BEYOND obsessed with detail, only did it once.


False Prophet wrote: Sat Dec 23, 2017 11:16 am How many prototypes and limited-production MS did the EFSF (plus the Titans, Londo Bell, and League Militaire) produced? How many of them had come to the mass-production stage? How much did these one-offs contributed to the overall states of wars?
The League Militaire probably doesn't belong on that list, since practically everything in their inventory was full production spec hardware that just happened to be infested with a boatload of optional gear. Even the regular Earth Federation Forces are pretty good about staying with mass production types. It's the Special Forces units, like Londo Bell or the Titans, that are the primary offenders. It seems like that's partly because, as the Special Forces, they feel compelled to have all the best and shiniest toys and partly because Anaheim Electronics sees some significant savings in letting the Special Forces test their experimental new designs in actual combat... a scenario that not only saves them money on test pilots, but also basically absolves them of any responsibility if their unreliable test machine should happen to get shot down.

Anaheim's basically semi-clandestinely doing the same thing the New UN Forces in Macross quite openly did with Strategic Military Services... using them as expendable test pilots.


False Prophet wrote: Sat Dec 23, 2017 11:16 am But if you look into the time period after the OYW, it seems to me that the EFSF inundated itself at every given moments with dozens of different MS development projects, some of which did exactly the same thing currently fufilled by existing models, while others were without clear goals (for example, why ressurecting the expensive (to produce) G-Line program even though they would eventually settle for something as simple as GMII, Gabaldy Beta, and Hi-Zack?)
There's the interesting and unanswered question of how many of those were actually bought and paid for vs. how many were "on loan" from Anaheim Electronics for combat data collection and objective evaluation by the EFSF's best and brightest. Anaheim Electronics seems to do a LOT of research into Mobile Suit development even when there's no active development contracts with the Earth Federation Forces... though sometimes that's because it's selling to both sides in an ultimate display of shady war profiteering.
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