Posted on 06/30/2023 11:11:17 AM PDT by linMcHlp
EXCERPTS:
If you want to believe America is still the "arsenal of democracy" that Franklin Roosevelt described in 1940, you might want to avoid looking too closely at the U.S. manufacturing sector. China has become the world's premier industrial power, greatly out-producing the United States in everything from steel to smartphones. Germany's machine-tool industry outshines our own. No U.S. shipyard has built a commercial ship destined for international commerce in decades.
I toured the last remaining tank plant in America, located in Lima, Ohio. General Dynamics, a donor to my think tank and consulting client, flew me there to see where it assembles the latest version of the Army's M1A2 main battle tank. The cavernous facility contains 1.6 million square feet of manufacturing space. The Trump administration is investing a boatload of money in modernizing the facility, but it's clear the place was neglected for a long time after Washington declared victory over communism.
The Army actually wanted to close it -- it is a government-owned facility -- even though it was the only surviving tank plant in the Western Hemisphere.
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
whaaaat?
So if the Russians or Chinese take out a repair/parts depot, the tanks all grind to a halt within a few hours?
“So if the Russians or Chinese take out a repair/parts depot, the tanks all grind to a halt within a few hours?”
The tanks or support vehicles carry some spares for line replaceable items. If the repair depot and the spares warehouses were hit the tanks could continue to operate but would degrade over time. Sufficiently trained people would then start cannibalizing parts off some tanks to keep others going. Some repairs can be done by jury-rigging farm or road equipment like tractors and loaders. But it would be massively inefficient. High tech equipment is dependent on a robust logistics and repair operation. If some sophisticated equipment cost X then the training, logistics and spares are likely to cost at least X again...maybe much more.
There isn’t enough safe space in Ukraine to support the type of facilities required to maintain a fleet of Abrams...or F16’s. I’m sure Zelinsky knows this. But the more stuff he asks for, the more stuff he gets. He’ll continue asking for the moon and he’ll be happy with missiles, drones, etc.
“So if the Russians or Chinese take out a repair/parts depot, the tanks all grind to a halt within a few hours?”
No. If the MTTF is one hour you would expect a failure every hour. Given a large number of tanks it would it would weeks.
Our southern border is more open than a Las Vegas hooker on the weekends.
“Our southern border is more open than a Las Vegas hooker on the weekends.”
Open, yes. But we won’t be using tanks. Actually, if the guards shot at people and wounded a few, the invasion would stop. But our government wants the invasion of people who don’t speak English or bring any skills or money. That’s our fault.
Don’t leave out our filthy domestic leftwing internal worms in your calculus.
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