Why is the Navy spending $19 billion on 'flying gas stations'?

The Bunker appears originally at the Project on Government Oversight and is republished here with permissionThe challenge: U.S. Navy carrier-based attack planes need enough range to strike enemy targets while keeping their huge carriers beyond the range of land-based enemy missiles. Check.This is where the U.S. Navy runs into rough seas. Each carrier (costing up to $20 billion including planes) and its 5,000 sailors make for a big, fat target. So the flattop has to turn up to a third of its roughly 40 F-18s into flying gas stations. Once airborne, these “buddy tankers” can feed fuel to their t