re: U2 view of the Chinese "Weather" Balloon

quote:

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we maintain and operate a fleet of 31 U-2's. I figured we had maybe 5-10 since it was such a specialized platform

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I think there are two things at play here.

1. You want a couple backups in case the chinese or russians ever figure out how to shoot one down again. You'd hate to see those 5 disappear and they sure don't make them anymore.

2. The support costs are probably the same if there are 10 or 30. There are probably some specialized parts that Lockhood, Honeywell, GE, or some other defense contractor has to make and they probably request a bulk purchase of "100 widgets" or whatever to make it financially viable to product such widgets. You have setup and shipping charges that probably don't change if you buy tires or taillights for 10 planes or 30 planes.