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Comment by phpnode | Hacker News Reader

no, he isn't:

> "To go out and buy new engines for the B-52, you'd have a really hard time fitting that into our program, but that's why we're interested in a public-private partnership, which would be a different way to amortize those engines over time and pay for them in the savings that they actually generate, instead of paying for them out of savings that you hope for.

This sounds like a Private Finance Initiative as the GP mentioned

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So basically, asking GE or Pratt & Whitney to fit modern turbofan engines upfront for free, and getting paid out of the fuel and/or maintenance savings over time?

That’s the idea, but it’s a profit making exercise for these companies. In all, they charge far, far more than the up front cost.

Not to mention, they’ll charge based on an annual fee for every year the engines are in service. And if there’s anything the original B52 taught us, it’s that avionic hardware is in service for far, far longer than we estimate when we buy it.

I suppose, not knowing what "far, far more" actually is, that could be appropriate. Typically, whether it's a loan or some kind of "partnership" when you ask someone else to front the expenses for your project/purchase you end up paying a lot more over time than if you had the cash in hand.

"Public private partnership" is a scheme that avoids traditional approval processes for debts, and introduces risk elements that allow the private partner to make money, and makes the financing cost difficult to measure. Instead of bonding engines and carrying the cost in the books, they are effectively leasing the engines.

>Instead of bonding engines and carrying the cost in the books, they are effectively leasing the engines.

leasing by the Line-Of-Business vs. capital investment through IT has been the root of the cloud revolution in the IT industry. Now military starts to learn the trick. Weapons as a Service...

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