Navy's Idea of 'Stimulus': Torpedoes, Missiles, Jets (Updated)

The Navy is hoping the stimulus bill will pay for more missiles, and fighter jets, and torpedoes.

The gazillion dollar economic aid package, making its way through Congress, puts a premium on projects that can generate jobs, ASAP. So the Pentagon has given "some suggestions in terms of military hospitals, clinics, barracks, some child-care centers and things like that, where we think the work could begin right away or is already under way and could be accelerated," Defense Secretary Robert Gates told senators the other day.

But an internal Navy memo, obtained by InsideDefense.com ace Chris Castelli, goes farther than these mom-and-apple-pie construction projects. Instead, the Navy suggests, what about some...

*Tomahawk cruise missiles, MK-48
torpedoes or SM-2 air defense missiles; warfighting equipment such as small boats, riverine and coastal warfare craft, and sonobouys; ship construction of DDG-51 destroyers or Littoral Combat Ships; aircraft construction of F/A-18 strike fighters, E/A-18 electronic warfare aircraft or E-2 surveillance aircraft; vital support equipment such as that for communication network security; military construction to build needed facilities, reduce the footprint of existing facilities, and modernize; research and development (including science and technology)
to identify new innovations; and short-term personnel programs to build critical skills and improve manning in junior technical ranks. *

Which sounds a lot more like the Navy's typical shopping list, than an attempt to get Americans working in a hurry. Not surprising. But lame.

Meanwhile, Taxpayers for Common Sense finds an extra billion in the stimulus bill for nuclear stockpile watchers at the Department of Energy's National
Nuclear Security Administration. Plus, there's another $200 million for the oft-troubled effort to build a high-tech fence along the Mexican border.

"DHS Secretary Janet Napolitano at her nomination hearing this month criticized the fence, which has already doubled in cost since construction began," the good-government group notes.
"Considering the controversy around increased spending on the weapons complex and border fence, these passages of the legislation should raise some flags over its shovel-readiness."

Here's my question to y'all: Should defense projects even be considered part of the stimulus package? Obviously, some of them do generate jobs. But with the Pentagon already gobbling up more than $600
billion a year, hasn't the military-industrial complex had more than its fill? Talk it over, in the comments.

UPDATE: "Weapons procurement should no longer be charity," writes Jim Arkedis.

When choosing which weapons systems to buy, relevancy must remain the guiding principle, not economics... Where they’re useful and relevant to ongoing and future missions of the United States military, fund them. But this economic crisis is tough on everyone, the government included, and the Obama administration should risk the urge to be all things to all people, even if a few votes are lost.

[Photo: Navy]