The ability to mass produce useful weaponry used in warfare is still pretty important, and the US is terrible at this at least in Javelin & 155mm artillery manufacturing to say nothing about ship building. And to be adaptable to new low cost weaponry such as drones. They have proven to wreak havoc upon armor and are cheap to boot.
the U.S. Navy has apparently lost its capacity to keep up with China in military shipbuilding.
China now has the largest fleet of warships in the world, about 350, while America’s Navy is struggling to get above 300.
Thus the US has to rebuild its weapon manufacturing industrial might. But the right weapons need to be built that include mundane items like drones & artillery munition. And we need to pass on whiz bang glitzy weapon platforms that are expensive to keep operational such as the F 35 or weapon platforms whose time has passed like the huge aircraft carrier [$13 billion] that is vulnerable to missile attack.
Hopefully DOGE will examine this area of the government spending and not just become another bloated government agency.
DOGE is not anything but a playful title given by a creative failed businessman seeking election to avoid, ahem, other problems, to two dudes who dislike each other. That’s it.
Smoke and mirrors. Do NOT watch the birdie, watch the man manipulating the birdie.
Misc comment. The F-35 financial and timeline mess might still be worth funding if we intend to do any significant manned fighting aviation in the future — an ever more questionable proposition, but real.
The F-35 was intentionally designed as a dicey test-bed, and I am convinced that they lied about that publicly so as to get it through Congress. Its capability to instantly share, digest, and tactically plan from information across all involved squadrons is a key breakthrough. It also has other potent capabilities.
Obsolescence is upon it because of drone warfare.
And yes, the military industrial complex is dangerously powerful, corrupt, and worsening.
In that instance, I tend to agree with Musk. Not a new revelation either. Tim, one with relevant operational experience. used to hold forth on how much of the weight, complexity, and cost, of an aircraft is that solely to keep the human occupant alive.
And, I suspect, that is why Musk made common cause with an openly, proudly, EV hostile regime. Tesla drivers are the beta testers for the systems Musk wants to sell to DoD.
Bingo. And just the entering edge of vast transformations of everything. Musk is an extremely insightful brilliant talented warped man. He is, all by himself, crucial to follow if one wishes to make macroeconomic predictions. Very very rare.
“Unclassified public wargames suggest that, in a conflict with China, the United States would largely exhaust its munitions inventories in as few as three to four weeks, with some important munitions (e.g., anti-ship missiles) lasting only a few days. Once expended, replacing these munitions would take years,” the report states.
Yes, but most of those recommendations will require action by Congress to actually turn into something and I am dubious how much can get through the House.
An an exercise, guess which Secretary of Defense made the following statement:
Congress has let me cancel a few programs. But you’ve squabbled and sometimes bickered and horse-traded and ended up forcing me to spend money on weapons that don’t fill a vital need in these times of tight budgets and new requirements. … You’ve directed me to buy more M1s, F14s, and F16s—all great systems … but we have enough of them.
I would say Dick Cheney. As the Navy owned the tooling, he ordered the F-14 tooling destroyed, to finally end the program. Same thing went on, years later, with the C-17. The Air Force had all it needed, or wanted, but Congress kept shoveling money to the “JCs” to build more.
Congress has been cashing in on the peace dividend for eons. But who wants to spend precious dollars on weapons that sit on the shelf for decades. When urgent needs arise maybe they will get more interested.
Meanwhile restarting mothballed equip from WWII probably won’t work. Complete rebuild probably required due to new regulations like OSHA. New control technologies, etc, etc. Takes some lead time. And guessing right on what future needs will be.