[magooey]

Skills, like making hardened steel for Navy ships’ hulls and ice breakers, are long forgotten - lost as part of various ‘peace dividends’ and de-milling efforts.

I have read that from the early 2000's until the late 2010's over 50,000 factories were moved from the USA to China. The American elite has simply decided to import such items from China./s

[PIF]

The skills were lost because there was no demand and those with the skills died off.

Does China have the skill to make hardened armor plate? I don’t know. They cannot make hardened armor plate for their ice breakers as they are only light duty ones.