The US is running out of bombs — and it may soon struggle to make more The annual Industrial Capabilities report, put out by the Pentagon’s Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy, has concluded that the industrial base of the munitions sector is particularly strained...
Some suppliers have dropped out entirely, leaving no option for replacing vital materials. Other key suppliers are foreign-owned, with no indigenous capability to produce vital parts and materials ― setting up the risk that a conflict with China could rely on Chinese-made parts...
As to diversity in the industrial base, well ― there isn’t any, with the authors concluding that Raytheon and Lockheed Martin account for about 97 percent of the DoD’s munitions and missile procurement funding. Four industrial areas stand out as “high risk” areas of concern: Solid rocket motors. A military-only technology, SRMs are basically split between Orbital ATK and AerojetRocketdyne. However, Orbital is set to take on a broader section of this production, essentially leaving the U.S. with only one producer of this vital equipment...
Thermal batteries. Used in all DoD missiles and guided munitions, there is one (unnamed) manufacturer of these technologies who controls about 80 percent of the market... - https://www.defensenews.com/pentagon/2018/05/22/the-us-is-running-out-of-bombs-and-it-may-soon-struggle-to-make-more
The Pentagon’s Seek-and-Destroy Mission for Counterfeit Electronics. ..
The military estimates that up to 15 percent of all spare and replacement parts for its weapons, vehicles and other equipment are counterfeit, making them vulnerable to dangerous malfunctions...
In December 2015 federal agents arrested three Chinese nationals for, among other things, selling 45 counterfeit Intel microchips to an undercover agent with the understanding the chips would be headed to the U.S. Navy for a project involving submarines. One of the men arrested—Jiang Guanghou Yan—had also asked the undercover agent to get him 22 military-grade Xilinx Corp. microchips—worth $37,00 apiece—for illegal export to China. “Military grade” means the electrical components are designed specifically to withstand prolonged exposure to extreme temperatures and radiation. When the agent advised Yan they would have to be stolen from a U.S. Navy base, Yan offered to cover up the crime by providing fakes to replace the stolen chips.
“If [those counterfeit chips had been] installed in a missile’s guidance system, such missile would either not function at all or would likely not proceed to its intended target, and would likely strike a completely unintended destination,” Keith Avery, a senior engineer at the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory, testified..
Integrated circuits are especially difficult to protect from counterfeiting because they might come from an overseas manufacturer and be resold by several subcontractors before a large military supplier like Lockheed Martin or Boeing embeds them in technology that it sells to the U.S. government. The global growth of the supply chain that lets electronics manufacturers tap less-expensive suppliers in China, Japan, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan has proved very difficult to police. Electronic waste from the U.S. is another key contributor to counterfeit integrated circuits, as trashed circuit boards from computers discarded in some countries are often taken apart, refurbished, relabeled, repackaged and resold as new to electronics manufacturers. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-pentagon-rsquo-s-seek-and-destroy-mission-for-counterfeit-electronics/
More relevant excerpts: How ridiculous was American production in World War 2? [images at link]
This is Willow Run...At peak, it produced 100 bombers in just two days.
America had 18 dry docks building Liberty Ships during WW2...the Liberty Ships went from nothing to ready to launch in an average of 42 days in those dry docks....The fastest built ship took less than five days. We built 2,710 of these ships during the war.
Here we have the M4 Sherman Tank...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 Essex Class Carriers...The Navy built 24 of these babies during WW2....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)..As well as 349 destroyers
On its present spiritual, moral and political trajectory, the time will come when it is lamented of the US,
How are the mighty fallen, and the weapons of war perished! (2 Samuel 1:27)
.
“Reliance on single producers within the supply chain, dependence on unstable or unfriendly foreign suppliers for critical components, and misplaced presumption of continued preeminence of American military superiority are examples of findings that should be immediately addressed,”
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Good lord, this needs to be ended ASAP. Actually FASTER than ASAP...do it in TRUMP TIME!
This is all great as long as the GOPe doesn’t just use it as an excuse to sell us out to somebody else.
It’s crazy that we have any military supplies made off of US soil. So many things can go wrong.
We need to remove from office every one responsible for getting us in this situation.
Then we have the governor of California giving a virtually defunct Chinese electric automobile maker a $1 billion dollar contract for N95 masks and surgical masks. He paid a good portion of the money up front. The Chinese auto maker has never made masks before. No information is being given out by the state of California on the details.
Get China materials and products out of all sectors.
ATM Trump has National powers to direct our industry. Can’t he start demanding local producers make some of these weapons to combat wartime actions of China?
Absolutely.
Why should our enemies be making parts for our weapons??????
This article is about high tech stuff. 25 years ago I went to a sports store to buy some hiking boots. ALL the boots from ALL the manufacturers were made in China.
You cannot put an army in the field without boots.
So this chain of supply problem is not just high tech.
trl
Years ago I was a second tier manufacturing shop for Boeing, then their union pulled my work back in house. I’d love to open up a shop again if it were making munitions.
“Reliance on single producers within the supply chain, dependence on unstable or unfriendly foreign suppliers for critical components, and misplaced presumption of continued preeminence of American military superiority are examples of findings that should be immediately addressed,”
We definitely need to be self sufficient in all of these areas.
It’s possible, but will take lot of time and research.
We are capable, hoping my friend Ti Ming can be employed in this effort.
China will try like crazy to sabotage this effort.
Since we’re now a “service economy”, why should this matter if other countries can supply us with what we need?
(LOL - do I need sarcasm)