16 May 2009

Stick to what you know, "reporter"

Or, read the helpful commenters on your blog.

Bettina Chavanne, a blogger at Ares recently posted this piece of idiocy in a post about ship construction in FY10 budget:
Virginia-class: The world's most expensive sub? The Navy is asking for $4.18 billion for its Virginia Class submarine, although in the same breath it promises to get costs down around $2 billion per boat (as measured in FY '05 dollars) by FY '12. Roughead said the subs are coming in "within budget and ahead of schedule." For that kind of money, they should also build themselves.
Now the fact that she doesn't understand enough to know that $4.18B is not for one Virginia, but for a Virginia, plus advance procurement for a congressionally accelerated ship in FY11, plus any other Ship Construction, Navy (SCN) expenses in that particular line item.

No, what I'm really taking her to task for is that she posted essentially the same error (crap reporting) in a previous post and was corrected by a commenter (Solomon).

Heres what she says about herself:
About Me: Bettina Chavanne is the Pentagon reporter for Aerospace Daily & Defense Report
My Company/Organization: Aviation Week & Space Technology
My Job Function: Pentagon reporter
My Areas of Expertise: Rotary-wing programs, USMC ground vehicles, ship building
My Areas of Interest: Helicopters and stuff that goes "boom"