That in itself is creating sole source problems that is forcing us to accept foreign competitors. Boeing's woes on the KCX program stem from their own arrogance yet there were no domestic competitors to fall back on.
We looked for a "peace dividend" that wasn't there in the 1980's and returned ourselves to a military manufacturing defecit paralleling post WWI and WWII.
I'm betting the next war won't give us the leisure of tooling up for two years to become the arsenal of democracy. At the same time we are betting that quality will overcome quantity. In a large part that worked against Iraq. But all conflicts will not be against poorly trained and poorly motivated armies. We have always underestimated the Chinese.
War is big business and the esential cause of all wars is economic strife.
Tooling up to fight back may not be an option if the US economy suffers catastrophic failure.
Considering that the main product of the US economy is debt, and those who pay those debts are getting slammed with $200 a barrel oil, a cascade into quasi-socialism, outsourcing offshore and a Tsunami of economic refugees breeding like cats.
what does it all mean ?