AS someone who started in defense manufacturing in the 70’s , I watched the number of machine shops dwindle as work was offshored , foundries close due to EPA regulation changes, the government cancel programs left and right due to stupidity from the procurement officers. In WW2 the government bypassed the Army Arsenals and Navy Shipyards and went straight to Chrysler and Kaiser to get things produced. The Pentagon never saw a project that it couldn’t kill just before production was about to start. Patriot production rate is 550 missiles per year, going to increase to 650 this year. That’s about 2 per day. Hey China, Iran, and Russia, can you limit your total attacks to 2 planes or missiles per day. As my dad would say, bullshit.
Virtually everything is CNC now. Yet it's the people who used to run manual equipment that become really valuable for design and fabrication of tooling and fixtures.
What was worse was using bogus environmental laws to kill plating and coating businesses.
Now that makes so much sense. I can definitely see DOD and Congress devising ways to sabotage our military.