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What was the most expensive military program of WW 2?

Discussion in 'Military Training, Doctrine, and Planning' started by T. A. Gardner, Jan 27, 2025.

  1. T. A. Gardner

    T. A. Gardner Genuine Chief

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    What would you say was the most expensive? What were the leading ones for the war?
     
    T. A. Gardner, Jan 27, 2025
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  2. CAC

    CAC Ace of Spades

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    Manhattan comes to mind…
     
    CAC, Jan 28, 2025
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  3. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer I Point at Opana Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    The Manhattan Project cost around $30 billion in 2023 dollars, based on the cost of around $2 billion in 1945. The War Powers Act of 1941 funded the project.
    Explanation
    • The Manhattan Project was a large-scale undertaking that employed almost 130,000 people at its peak.
    • The majority of the project's cost went towards building and operating the plants that produced the fissile material.
    • The cumulative inflation rate between 1946 and 2023 was 1464.7%.
    • The Manhattan Project was more impressive in terms of cost at the time than later American military expenditures.
     
    OpanaPointer, Jan 28, 2025
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  4. R Leonard

    R Leonard Member

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    Cost of the B-29 project was 3,000,000,000 by the end of the war; that's about $53,796,306,818 today. So, to develop and field the planes that made the drops of the results of the Manhattan project, was slightly more than Manhattan itself.
     
    R Leonard, Jan 28, 2025
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  5. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer I Point at Opana Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    Difference being production of a machine employing known principles v. "from scratch" construction of a bomb of unparalleled destructiveness.

    So, if you add up the cost of all weapons systems first employed in WWII it would be more than the Manhattan Project. But no one conventional weapons production program cost more than Manhattan.
     
    OpanaPointer, Jan 28, 2025
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  6. T. A. Gardner

    T. A. Gardner Genuine Chief

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    Defeating the U-boat threat ran the Allies somewhere between $10 and $20 billion total. US destroyer escort construction alone amounted to about $3 billion. Liberty ships ran about $2 million apiece.
     
    T. A. Gardner, Jan 29, 2025
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  7. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer I Point at Opana Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    I separate "programs" from "operations". "Weapons development program" sticks in my brain. YMMV
     
    OpanaPointer, Jan 30, 2025
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  8. T. A. Gardner

    T. A. Gardner Genuine Chief

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    Well, building DE's ran about $3 billion and only about half of the contracted number were actually laid down or completed. That makes the program, as intended, somewhere in the neighborhood of $6 billion, possibly as much as $7 or $8 billion. (Just over 500 of all classes were constructed while the program called for 1000).

    2710 Liberty ships were manufactured, with a total program cost of about $5.5 billion.
     
    T. A. Gardner, Jan 30, 2025
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  9. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer I Point at Opana Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    Many ways to bookeeper the question, yes.

    Here's a fun spin on the question: "What was the most expensive weapon to develop that was only used twice in combat?"
     
    OpanaPointer, Jan 30, 2025
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  10. CAC

    CAC Ace of Spades

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    Or what weapon system was the first to pique the interest of Aliens...?
     
    CAC, Jan 30, 2025
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  11. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer I Point at Opana Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    That would be the Galactic Patrol's negasphere.
     
    OpanaPointer, Jan 30, 2025
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  12. CAC

    CAC Ace of Spades

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    Actually they were already interested...
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]
    [​IMG]

    Plenty more where they came from...
     
    CAC, Jan 30, 2025
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  13. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer I Point at Opana Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    Little green space buddies.
     
    OpanaPointer, Jan 31, 2025
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  14. T. A. Gardner

    T. A. Gardner Genuine Chief

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    Well, that's obvious...

    [​IMG]
     
    T. A. Gardner, Feb 2, 2025
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  15. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer I Point at Opana Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    Odd, I would have gone with Hydra's secret programs.
     
    OpanaPointer, Feb 3, 2025
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  16. CAC

    CAC Ace of Spades

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    Dont get me started on German bases on the moon and Mars...Most of the western world is a part of it these days...With the Germans leading. If you beleive in that sort of stuff...
     
    CAC, Feb 3, 2025
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  17. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer I Point at Opana Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    Don't. The researchers who examined all of the nuclear program material the Nazis had reported back to the US with the code phrase, "Mother never pregnant, baby never born." As they had access to damn near everything the Nazis did any super science material would have been found.
     
    OpanaPointer, Feb 4, 2025
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  18. CAC

    CAC Ace of Spades

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    They WERE experimenting with red mercury...spinning it at high speeds...This can create an anti-gravity effect...Apparently.
    Not sure if red mercury even exists...it may have been mis-named.
     
    CAC, Feb 4, 2025
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  19. OpanaPointer

    OpanaPointer I Point at Opana Staff Member WW2|ORG Editor

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    OpanaPointer, Feb 4, 2025
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  20. Poppy

    Poppy grasshopper

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    It is not easy being green. Beep boop.
     
    Poppy, Feb 6, 2025
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