Why America Is Out of Ammunition

Big Newsletter ^

[MNDude]

Why can't the Pentagon get weapons firms to ramp up production? A new report shows the military doesn't track who owns its contractors, and has just two people looking at mergers in the defense base

One of the more important side stories to the recent wars in Ukraine and Israel, and competition with China over Taiwan, is that the U.S. defense industrial base, composed of 200k plus corporations, is being forced to actually build weapons again. Defense is big business, and since the end of the Cold War, the government has allowed Wall Street to determine who owns, builds, and profits from defense spending.

The consequence, as with much of our economic machinery, are predictable. Higher prices, worse quality, lower output. Wall Street and private equity firms prioritize cash out first, and that means a once functioning and nimble industrial base now produces more grift than anything else.

The signs are unmistakable. In Ukraine, fighters are rationing shells. Taiwan can’t get weapons it ordered years ago. The Pentagon has put together a secret team to scour stockpiles to find high-precision armaments in demand on every battlefield and potential battlefield. But the problem goes beyond national defense. In Lake City, Missouri, the largest small arms ammunition plant in the world has decided all ammo production is going to the military, meaning that there is going to be a domestic shortage for hunters, sportsmen, and maybe even police. This shortage may look like a story of a sudden surge in demand, but it’s actually, as Elle Ekman wrote in the Prospect in 2021, a story of consolidation and de-industrialization.

[GRRRRR]

I know a guy…

🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🐍

[qaz123]

A buddy of mine just told me about this yesterday.

Word is Biden said that Lake City can only produce for the military and approved contracts.

Damage to Hornady factory.

Other companies being snatched up by foreign investors.

Nope, the WEF/NWO/Bilderberg/Illuminati types don’t exist. Nope. Not a chance. No way at all.

On a side note, I’m convinced that democrats hold a lot of stock in the firearms industry. Every time they open their mouths there’s another run on guns and ammo and prices go through the roof

[crusty old prospector]

I’m not. I think.

[TangoLimaSierra]

Maybe the reason Biden is so intent on giving away our stock of weapons/ammo is so he can justify confiscating our private guns/ammo.

For the good of the country, don't you know.

[qaz123]

Wall St ruins everything it touches. Just like the democrats they control.

Years ago it started snatching up the security companies that provided services to embassies and consults in the ‘high threat’ areas around the world.

Started cutting salaries, etc. People left the jobs. They complained that they couldn’t find replacements and had to lower standards. Government complied.

Now they get what they can, when they can, and do their best to hold onto them for as long as they can. Which isn’t very long.

[redgolum]

All true.

Civilian ammo dries up in a war. And we are in a war.

[Deaf Smith]

Surplus 7.62 NATO & 5.56 NATO is drying up.

[coalminersson]

I thought this was about th Sotero admnin buying up hundreds of rounds of ammo to tighten the market.

[ArcadeQuarters]

> Taiwan can’t get weapons it ordered years ago.

So we knew about this and did nothing?

[vetvetdoug]

A shortage of ammo for all of those that haven’t already prepared...

[daniel1212]

How ridiculous was American production in World War 2? [images at link]
Quora ^ | 2019 | Chris Morehouse

Posted on 11/12/2019, 8:47:32 PM by daniel1212

Chris Morehouse, Aerospace Engineer at U.S. Air Force (2017-present)

We can just put up a bunch of numbers, but I don’t think that gives a full appreciation of scale. So first let’s hit some specific examples.

The B-24

This is Willow Run. It was a B-24 plant built by Ford to mass produce the bomber. It ran its line 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and produced a complete B-24 every 63 minutes on average. At peak, it produced 100 bombers in just two days.

This plant produced less than half of the total B-24s we built during the war.

That is just one plant, producing one type of aircraft. We had literally had thousand of plants like this, producing everything from tanks to field dressings.

The Liberty Ships

This is a Liberty Ship. It was a 14,000 ton cargo ship used for carrying essential war materials from the US to our allies and troops during WW2.

Let’s see how they come to be.

[see images at link )

Wait - where did you all come from?

America had 18 dry docks building Liberty Ships during WW2. Whereas typically riveted ships of the day took months to build, the Liberty Ships went from nothing to ready to launch in an average of 42 days in those dry docks. They were welded instead of riveted, and only built for a 5-year life span.

Forty-two days doesn’t seem very fast? Well I did say that was an average. The first Liberty ship took 230 days to complete. The fastest built ship took less than five days. That is a 14,000 ton ship from laying the keel to launch in less than five days.

We built 2,710 of these ships during the war.

The Sherman

Here we have the M4 Sherman Tank. This was a medium tank, and the primary tank of the US Army during the war. It has received a lot of criticism both then and now as being too light for the competition, having an undersized gun and the liability of a gas burning (instead of diesel) engine. For all that, it was still a very successful tank. One of its best features… it lent itself to mass production.

Above is the Detroit Arsenal Tank Plant. This plant was built by Chrysler for the US Army and was the country's first government-owned, contractor-operated tank plant. Shown in the picture is the assembly of the M4A4 Sherman tanks.

This 113-acre plant built Lee, Sherman and Pershing tanks during the war and was only one of nine plants that built the Sherman. Between the nine plants, 49,234 Sherman tanks were built during the war, accounting for about half of the tanks the US produced during the war. Yeah, half again.

The Flat Tops

While we were building Liberty Ships as if we were breeding rabbits, we had to also build some fighting ships. To this end we built a whole bunch of shipyards.

Here we have a portion of the Boston Naval Yard in 1943. In the large slipway on the left you can see a monster of a ship. That would be the USS Iowa, a big-ass Battleship. We built eight battleships during WW2, and repaired several more that got a rough start at Pearl Harbor. But what I want to point out is the long flat guy in the center top. That is the USS Bunker Hill, an Essex Class Aircraft Carrier.

The Essex Class Carriers were a mainstay of the American Carrier Fleet. They were the Navy’s new wonder weapons, and the Navy could not possibly have enough of them. The Essex could carry 90–100 aircraft, had a crew of about 2600 and could take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’.

The Navy built 24 of these babies during WW2.

Here is the Bunker Hill right after being launched on December 7th 1942, exactly one year after the attack on Pearl Harbor. It joined the fleet as one new carrier out of the 141 Aircraft Carriers we would build during the war. No, that number is not a typo. The United States built and launched 141 Aircraft Carriers of all classes during the war. To protect them we built 498 escort ships (Corvettes and Frigates)

(Above: Buckley Class Destroyer Escort, 148 built) As well as 349 destroyers (Above: Fletcher Class Destroyer, 175 Built).

We can go on and on, but the fact of the matter is the US was one giant, war-material-producing machine during WW2. We easily out-produced every other participant in the conflict, and at the same time created an entire NEW industry which produced the first nuclear chain reaction, uranium enrichment infrastructure, plutonium production plants and atomic reactors and weapons. We literally invented a new industry while building all this other stuff, creating massive industrial plants for the various type of chemical and physical uranium enrichment processes, as well as testing and production facilities for the weapons themselves.

It is honestly hard to fully grasp the magnitude of the industrial might that was leveraged during the conflict. But hopefully this has given you some appreciation for the monumental effort put forth by American industry and the American people.

[Bonemaker]

I think the SOB dried up lead mining. Trump should have un-dried it.

[Bonemaker]

Millions of rounds!

[Organic Panic]

It didn’t help that Obama pretty much shut down lead production in the US. But the rest of ammo. The democrats want us to lose. They have this country more than anything.

[coalminersson]

ouch

[Badboo]

The rate of arms production is directly proportional to the amount of campaign contributions. That is all there is to it. Our Republirat and Democrap pigs in Congress must be fed.

[pierrem15]

Back in the 80s, when we had a real government and not a clownshow, I recall the DOD used to pay for ammunition suppliers to build-out and mothball extra facilities and also paid for extra sets of long lead-time machine tools, etc., so defense production could quickly expand.

My guess is to "reduce costs" after the "end" of history we stopped paying for this and now allow defense contractors to consolidate production to minimize current cost and maximize profit.

[moovova]

“Speak for yourself, kemosabe.”

[MeneMeneTekelUpharsin]

I am not out of ammunition and have some to sell in the Austin area. Must be a long-time Freeper. No palestinians of any stripe. PM me.