America’s hidden industrial ‘surge’ weakness

DOD Buzz ^

[AfricanChristian]

Wednesday’s brief by two of DC’s top defense analysts included another interesting element besides their endorsement of an “industrial strategy” to protect the defense sector: If the U.S. got into a desperate national pinch and needed to “surge” its stocks of weapons or equipment, it probably could not do it, they said.

Barry Watts and Todd Harrison, of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, explained that there are many reasons why the U.S. could not switch on a major industrial effort like the one that built the “arsenal of democracy” in World War II:

• You can’t just simply retool a factory to build today’s high-tech warplanes, the way Ford once had its Willow Run, Mich., auto plant building a B-24 every hour. The U.S. doesn’t even have manufacturing plants of the comparative number and quality it did back then, or the workers to run them.

[kiryandil]

It’s flat-out treason, is what it is.

[Former Proud Canadian]

If the U.S. got into a desperate national pinch and needed to “surge” its stocks of weapons or equipment, it probably could not do it, they said.

Umm, this is not good.

[SgtBob]

I call this c-rap! I guarantee the U. S. of A. will spool up quicker than a top, EPA bedamned.

[Soul of the South]

The textile and apparel industry was one of the early casualties of the “free trade” movement. Were this country to get into an extended war, the manufacturing infrastructure no longer exists to clothe the nation. The looms, knitting machines, and sewing machines required to make and sew fabric were exported when the factories shut down and are no longer produced in this country. It would take years to rebuild sufficient productive capacity to clothe our people, if we could import the machinery to set up the factories.

It is not good to be dependent on your major adversary to manufacture essentials for survival.

[WePledge]

I disagree. The corporations are international for the most part and our credit is so bad they may pull out rather than man up. There is no American spirit in corporate America nor in the American populous for that matter.
It’s a sad state of affairs but true.

[Liberty1970]

I work in an electronics factory in the U.S. Guess where we get virtually all of our components, with the exception of the housings?

We'd be down in three days once a war with China started. For good.

[Tallguy]

You can’t just simply retool a factory to build today’s high-tech warplanes, the way Ford once had its Willow Run, Mich., auto plant building a B-24 every hour. The U.S. doesn’t even have manufacturing plants of the comparative number and quality it did back then, or the workers to run them.

This has been true for over 30 years. The facts are that future major wars are "come as you are."

[The Antiyuppie]

“This has been true for over 30 years. The facts are that future major wars are “come as you are.”

I don’t think any future “really big war” could last more than a week or two. All of the USSR’s equipment was designed for a short war, for this reason. And this was one of the reasons that that equipment often had great specs, but terrible repairability/lifetimes.

[3Fingas]

This is why we absolutely must change our trade policies and abandon this crazy idea of “free-trade”. We should pull out of the WTO (in the long-term) and establish bilateral trading relationships like we used to have. “Freer” trade with allies, more tariffs on people less friendly. We should also not reduce defense spending. First, the world is a dangerous place and our current military supremacy is the prime guarantor of our freedom. Second, this is one of the few manufacturing sectors where we will still do a great job. I am aware of Eisenhower’s warning about the military-industrial complex; however, until we get other manufacturing sectors back in the game, the defense establishment is “our Ace in the hole” as it were.

[SueRae]

Yup!! Some of the more exotic technologies under development may take awhile but not the rest. If there was a need, you’d see it happen quick, fast and in a hurry. There’s engineers and assemblers who would come back out of retirement in a New York second even if they were on gurneys, if they were needed.

[DesertRhino]

He’s right. Think of the length of time WWII took us. It was 3 1/2 years. We built a MASSIVE world beating military from scratch in about 4. (including 3 atomic bombs that were just pure imagination on day one)

Compare to Iraq. We couldnt build armored vehicles for a force about 100 times smaller in the same time today. And armor plated Humvees _ain’t_ exactly building an F22.

[DesertRhino]

From shortly before Pearl Harbor until VJ day we built around 88,000 tanks. For our force in iraq, this would be a full-on TANK for ever TWO men.
We couldnt even build enough Up Armor kits for Iraq in that same time.
Disgusting.

[MrBambaLaMamba]

Just stating the obvious.

We're a service based economy now.

Industry outsourced, factories closed and torn down, the machines used to make machine tools have been scrapped and the tool and die makers are going extinct.

60 years of socialist controlled education [F the proletarian losers, ha, ha we're special!] has produced a pussified workforce that views skilled labor and manufacturing jobs as unfulfilling, undesirable, boring and suitable only for the uneducated and factories as living hells full of hard work and pollution.

Does the MSM even call those former productive regions in the northeast/midwest the rust belt anymore?

That'll be $14.93, you need any condiments wid your order?

[SgtBob]

SueRae, the phrase has already been coined, “ You betcha!”

[SgtBob]

The infrastucture is in place; in the late ‘30s -early ‘40s industry was just taking off. Truth be told, I could build a heavy caliber weapon in my back yard.

BTW, we have a “world beating military” right now.....our civilian overlords just can’t figure out how to win.....

[reardensteel]

This shouldn’t surprise anyone. The power brokers of the world want stability and growth, that requires interdependence of nations. We are dependent upon China and India by design, not be accident. It’s the great gamble that the interdependence will keep us from waring, I only hope it works because there is no going back.

It’s also the reason unemployment is unlikely to recover in this generation. Industry is global so labor markets are global. The U.S. has been on top in the most privileged position one could ask for - globalization brings equilibrium, which only means our standard of living goes down while everyone else goes up. Who knows where the balance point is? I think we still have a very long way down to go.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

The power brokers of the world want stability and growth, that requires interdependence of nations.

I disagree. They want the quickest profits possible, America be d*mned.

They are creating in China a country they will not be able to control, and will not be included in. Selfish, treasonous fools.

[rottndog]

I call this c-rap! I guarantee the U. S. of A. will spool up quicker than a top, EPA bedamned.

EXACTLY right! Yes, modern manufacturing is much different than 70 years ago, but in a pinch we could ramp up just as quickly or even quicker.

We don't have the kind of heavy industry we used to, because we don't need it now. Much cheaper and more economical to do many of those things elsewhere. That does NOT mean we can't do those things now....we did it once...we'll can do it again.

[Cringing Negativism Network]

We’re in a pinch.