Oligopolies are a universal phenomenon in military manufacturing as only massive enterprises have the scale to deliver to the requirements - so this is unlikely to be the cause of the ills described in the article.
The most significant problem might be - counterintuitively - the guaranteed and consistent over budgeting. Imagine if every year your company's IT budget inflated by 100%, regardless of what you spent it on, or what the actual business requirement was. You're going to end up searching for ways to spend the money, over paying for overly complicated products and pursuing all sorts of boondoggles which clutter the strategic vision. The guaranteed budgetary increases destroys budgetary discipline and corrupts the entire system and its products.
Given that its politically impossible to cut the budget, the US military is in a bind of its making, with the only way out might perversely be to actually to start a war(s) in order to raise expenditure against this guaranteed income
I’m very concerned about or supply chain issues as the article mentions. Moving huge portions of our manufacturing to China has made us incredibly vulnerable. I imagine that’s why Russia and China are ratcheting up now
But who wants to work in factories as production grunts? The jobs are pretty terrible.
We need robot powered factories that require 1/10th or less the manpower of a normal factory. Then the extra cost of US wages matters less, and with the rising cost of shipping - it’s now both quicker and cheaper to build in the US.
Not really? Factory work is hard, but generally pays well and has consistent long term demand (aka job security). Machining is skilled labor and paid like it, and factories that work with metal are far cleaner than others. Ironically, the dirtiest and most hazardous factory I've seen/worked in was a laundry soap factory, hands down. Nobody making parts that require consistent quality can just not give a fuck like that or depend on a pipeline of disposable desperate temp workers for production.
Asian components are fine from a foreign policy perspective.
Japan, Korea, Taiwan are allies and I don't see any reasonable future where that's threatened.
The main issue is that Taiwan is directly threatened by military action by China. Even if Taiwan remains friendly with us, a war in that region would cut off our supply of chips.
> After decades of consolidation, the industry suffers from a paucity of competition and lacks the kind of “surge capacity” needed to wage major industrial wars.
During WW2 Kodak and IBM among others were making rifles. The "surge capacity" comes from a healthy manufacturing economy, which China has and the USA no longer does.
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[ 3.1 ms ] story [ 47.3 ms ] threadThe most significant problem might be - counterintuitively - the guaranteed and consistent over budgeting. Imagine if every year your company's IT budget inflated by 100%, regardless of what you spent it on, or what the actual business requirement was. You're going to end up searching for ways to spend the money, over paying for overly complicated products and pursuing all sorts of boondoggles which clutter the strategic vision. The guaranteed budgetary increases destroys budgetary discipline and corrupts the entire system and its products.
Given that its politically impossible to cut the budget, the US military is in a bind of its making, with the only way out might perversely be to actually to start a war(s) in order to raise expenditure against this guaranteed income
We need robot powered factories that require 1/10th or less the manpower of a normal factory. Then the extra cost of US wages matters less, and with the rising cost of shipping - it’s now both quicker and cheaper to build in the US.
We need a draft for technical trades. Not like they’re doing anything else.
Not really? Factory work is hard, but generally pays well and has consistent long term demand (aka job security). Machining is skilled labor and paid like it, and factories that work with metal are far cleaner than others. Ironically, the dirtiest and most hazardous factory I've seen/worked in was a laundry soap factory, hands down. Nobody making parts that require consistent quality can just not give a fuck like that or depend on a pipeline of disposable desperate temp workers for production.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QfbdVboVNUM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nah4BQ9y8IY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sXkEjbZtNic
Do you know how a modern factory works?
There are tons of crappy grunt jobs still in the factories America has left. Outside of a few industries, it's there isn't margin to do that.
And as others have pointed out, our factories are heavily automated but you still need humans.
Japan, Korea, Taiwan are allies and I don't see any reasonable future where that's threatened.
The main issue is that Taiwan is directly threatened by military action by China. Even if Taiwan remains friendly with us, a war in that region would cut off our supply of chips.
Losing our status as the most powerful nation? Impacting the livelihoods of our most vulnerable and in-need (citizens)?
During WW2 Kodak and IBM among others were making rifles. The "surge capacity" comes from a healthy manufacturing economy, which China has and the USA no longer does.