Posted on 06/08/2013 7:46:51 PM PDT by TexGrill
(CBS News) WASHINGTON The cybersecurity issues aren't the only U.S. concern has about China. The Pentagon is growing increasingly worried about relying on military components made in China.
The hellfire missile -- launched from helicopters, jets and predator drones -- has been a critical weapon in the war on terror. But the propellant that fires the missile must be imported from China.
It's not the only area where the Pentagon military depends on imports. The glass in U.S. made night vision goggles requires a soft white-colored metal called lanthanum, 90 percent of which comes from China.
"We need to onshore our critical defense supply," said retired Army Gen. John Adams. He is the author of a new report, which lists14 categories where the military relies on imported minerals or technologies. Some of those supplies, Adams said, could be stopped during a conflict.
Chinese president: My country also hit by hackers Amid complex relationship, Obama seeks cooperation with China China's first lady Peng Liyuan to take center stage on U.S. visit
"We need to make sure that our most advanced and our most critical weapons systems don't depend upon or strategic competitor to supply those components to us," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
The glass in U.S. made night vision goggles requires a soft white-colored metal called lanthanum, 90 percent of which comes from China. WHY... the EPA???
Sources of Lanthanum:
Found with rare earths in monazite and bastnasite. Around 12,500 tons are produced world wide each year. Primary mining areas are USA, Brazil, India, Sri Lanka, Australia.
http://environmentalchemistry.com/yogi/periodic/La.html
Communist China has been after a corner on the rare earths market.
Uh, go back to the DuPont family and let them make the stuff, again...
Well, they ain’t getting the corner 7-11...
sure, but only because we are not allowed to mine it here, NOT that we don't have deposits here i smell a clinton somewhere in this...
the epa
the epa is simply a communist front organization...
Serious, we have to get the propellant for our missiles from China? Come on. How do you say, ‘pathetic’ in Mandarin?
I guess “free trade” does have some national security implications after all. Just think about all computer hardware (motherboards, network cards, video cards, etc) we import from China. Now think how easy it would be for China to place backdoors in all of it. It is about time we start making stuff here in America again. Sometimes the bottom line is not the only consideration.
Right now, all Taiwan Websites are shut down in Beijing. Does it make you curious? Especially since it was easy to open Taiwan Websites a few days ago.
Curiouser and curiouser.
Thanks, TexGrill. The truly anonymous proxy servers, open source BSD systems (NetBSD, OpenBSD) and strong encryption would probably be too conspicuous and suspicion-arousing for anyone to use there, too. The cultures around there are interesting to some of those of us, who haven’t had the opportunity to travel around that part of the world.
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.