Different Economies

The U.S. Navy has kept P-3 Orion aircraft flying for more than 40 years. The U.S. Air Force is quietly retireing its fleet of F117 Stealth Fighters after just 27 years. Mike jokes that the Air Force spends its money on good housing and bases for its people and then when the money is all spent goes back to Congress to say "Oops, we spent all our money before we built any planes...can we have some more?" whereas the Navy spends its money on ships and weapons first and then says "Oh well, don't have any money left over to house or care for our people...guess they'll have to wing it." I'm sure he'll have some words about putting perfectly good young aircraft out to pasture while his fellow flight engineers are holding together aircraft that are decades older than they are.