Posted on 08/03/2006 11:47:46 AM PDT by Tailgunner Joe
Without so much as a single public hearing, the Senate has adopted a bill that could radically weaken our national defense. Obscure language slipped into legislation on the Senate floor would effectively enable outsourcing to Russia the production of titanium, a strong but lightweight metal that is critical for America's military hardware -- aircraft, armored vehicles and other defense systems.
Alarmingly, the provision would enable America's ability to produce defense-grade titanium to be handed over to a single company in Russia. What's worse, the Russian government is attempting to take over the company, named VSMPO.
In other words -- and this, unfortunately, is not an exaggeration -- the Senate action could lead to a situation where the Defense Department could not build jet fighters or bombers without the Kremlin's permission. Will Russian President Vladimir Putin and his successors always agree to sell Defense the titanium it needs? Who knows? Even if the United States got its orders filled, the Kremlin would have information on every detail of the grade and quantity of titanium that the Pentagon wants to buy, and good intelligence on what weapons systems the U.S. is building. ...
Current law requires that certain critical materials used in Defense contracts -- like titanium and other important specialty metals -- must be produced in the United States. These provisions on specialty metals were adopted into law decades ago and have worked as intended, providing the United States with a reliable source of domestic titanium and other specialty metals for military applications. ...
The American titanium industry is too important to our national security to be replaced as a supplier to the Defense Department by a company targeted for takeover by the Russian government.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtontimes.com ...
No mention of military secrets in there, wonder why?
The SR 71, at the height of the cold war, was built with Russian titanium.
The domestic content law is mercantilism of the worst sort. Why subsidize US titanium at the cost of higher taxes for US Inconel manufacturers?
We don't need to tell them what the Ti is for, we just buy the billets and process it as we see fit.
So I don't think Adam Smith was saying that we would have the Russians build our Nuke Subs, just supply some of the raw materials. Nothing wrong with that, and we'll still have our own production capabilities here, and of course machining processes for Ti as well.
The added comepetition from another supplier for the Ti should help lower the costs overall.
It probably would have made more sense to do that first, and then build the International Space Station.
To get even one pound of anything from the moon would cost billiions, but by the time you've retrieved the billionth pound, it will have become "dirt, cheap!"
"NORAD is going offline soon and will be open to public tours.
And no, I'm not kidding."
that's very telling
This might be alarming, but it is only the way things work. There are several strategic materials that are not available except from our potential enemy. Thus has it always been.
Titanium is one of the more common elements. There is no shortage of titanium on earth. However, titanium is difficult to work with and requires very expensive specialized equipment. This is what is being purchased--the manufacturing.
Western Civilization has done utterly senile.
Including me ... done?.... that ought to have been GONE!
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.