I saw today the US Navy complaining that they have a weapon shortage that could reach a critical stage within 6 months.
Del Toro said that the Navy is not “quite there yet,” referring to the decision point between arming itself or Ukraine, “but if the conflict does go on for another six months or another year, it certainly continues to stress the supply chain in ways that are challenging.”
In his remarks, Caudle specifically singled out two weapons – the Navy’s SM-6 missile and the Mark 48 torpedo. The former is an extended-range version of the Navy’s workhorse surface-to-air missile, and the latter is a torpedo that is used on submarines.
Unfortunately the news articles do not explain how the land base weapon munitions going to the Ukraine impacts the 2 above weapons. Perhaps the explosives that go into the warheads of these navy weapons. I dunno.
In fact, I can find nothing in US mainstream media or internet about weapon/munition production problems.
I do know that NATO ran out of munitions when they conducted their Libya adventure removing Gaddafi from power. That the US had to resupply NATO.
I also know that Taiwan is waiting for US weapons on back order.
Is the existing defense industry facilities/infrastructure inadequate for the task? Is the defense industry operating on a “just in time” supply chain that was popular prior to Covid & US-China trade war?
If there is a problem, what is our government and/or the defense industry doing to rectify the problem?