[Jim Noble]

I wonder how much wartime (i.e., emergency) ship- and aircraft-production ability we really have any more.

For example, when my parents were first married, the Navy was producing steel at the Brooklyn Navy Yard (and, I assume, at other shipbuilding locations around the country). This is the steel that built the USS Iowa and USS Missouri, among others.

Suppose the first two Ford class aircraft carriers are sunk on the first day of the upcoming war with China? Where is the steel produced to replace them?

In 1942-43, from a standing start, we launched over 50 aircraft carriers. They didn't take 14 years each to build.

[Bull Snipe]

During WWII there were 3 Navy Shipyards and two civilian ship yards capable of building 100 or so large aircraft carriers, battleships and heavy cruisers. Today only one civilian yard has that capability. During WWII probably a dozen different shipyards built hundreds of light cruisers, destroyers and destroyer escorts. Today there are two or three yards that can do that. During WWII there were dozens of shipyards building thousands of cargo ships. Today only two or three build cargo ships in this country. To answer your question, we really do not have much ship construction capability anymore.

[mkjessup]

For example, when my parents were first married, the Navy was producing steel at the Brooklyn Navy Yard (and, I assume, at other shipbuilding locations around the country). This is the steel that built the USS Iowa and USS Missouri, among others.

Suppose the first two Ford class aircraft carriers are sunk on the first day of the upcoming war with China? Where is the steel produced to replace them?

In 1942-43, from a standing start, we launched over 50 aircraft carriers. They didn't take 14 years each to build.

GREAT points about steel availability, and in that same vein, during World War II, by the time Liberty ship construction was up and running full time, average time for completion was 42 days per ship. And while it was done for publicity (to promote war bonds), the SS Robert E. Peary was launched 4 days and 15 hours after the keel was laid. The key was building the ships assembly line style with prefabricated sections and while that might not be the best way to construct warships, it does prove that at one time, America's ship building industry was second to none.

I wonder how much wartime (i.e., emergency) ship- and aircraft-production ability we really have any more.

I fear the answer is "ZERO" and we will rue the day that occurred.

[AFret.]

In 1942-43, from a standing start, we launched over 50 aircraft carriers. They didn’t take 14 years each to build.

These days, my thoughts often turn to, “Back Then”. What a wonderful and powerful nation we were in the 1940’s and 50’s. I read that during the war for example, we produced a Liberty Ship every 24 hours and a B-24 every hour...think about that. The “Arsenal of Democracy” is what we were referred to. Those days are behind us. Now, in the same time it took us to defeat Japan and Germany..we can’t even design a website to manage obamacare. It is no wonder the world laughs at us..they should.