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having a classified piece of technology would be impossible to maintain chain of custody on. I'm thinking specifically of all the foreign military sales for the

having a classified piece of technology would be impossible to maintain chain of custody on. I'm thinking specifically of all the foreign military sales for the F16, F15, etc Being in physical possession of a turbine blade doesn’t give you the secrets of how to manufacture it, which are extremely tightly controlled.

lazide 5y ago
It does not, but it certainly helps no?
lallysingh 5y ago
Agreed, bit for this crowd I think a better metaphor would be possession of a microprocessor. Having one doesn't tell you much in terms for duplicating the technology needed to make it unless you're already at that level.
salawat 5y ago
It gets you maybe 1/3 of the way there in the sense you have a work product to compare to for your own efforts to figure out how-to. Falls apart a bit if you're trying to nail down chemistry or something like an IC production process though where the equipment itself is built by people who will neither talk nor possibly sell to you. Look into the Soviet konkordski tire counter-intel effort. If I recall correctly, NATO found out the Soviets were trying to get their hands on the rubber formulation for the tires of the landing gear, and counterintelligence worked with manufacturers to leak the formula for the "worst rubber for the job ever". Keep trying to find where I stumbled on that, but it seems to be lost to the all seeing eye of the Internet now. Closest I get is references to Pavlov smuggling the plans for the landing gear assembly out of France. Give me two copies of something that you don't want to tell me how to make, one for destructive analysis, and one to compare against as a finished product, and I can at least filter out some false starts from the get-go.
- goatinaboat 5y ago
  Falls apart a bit if you're trying to nail down chemistry or something like an IC production process though where the equipment itself is built by people who will neither talk nor possibly sell to you. Turbine blades are like ICs in the sense that the secret sauce is in the materials and the manufacturing processes. You can imitate the exterior shape perfectly and it still be completely useless.

lazide 5y ago

It does not, but it certainly helps no?

lallysingh 5y ago

Agreed, bit for this crowd I think a better metaphor would be possession of a microprocessor. Having one doesn't tell you much in terms for duplicating the technology needed to make it unless you're already at that level.

salawat 5y ago

It gets you maybe 1/3 of the way there in the sense you have a work product to compare to for your own efforts to figure out how-to. Falls apart a bit if you're trying to nail down chemistry or something like an IC production process though where the equipment itself is built by people who will neither talk nor possibly sell to you. Look into the Soviet konkordski tire counter-intel effort. If I recall correctly, NATO found out the Soviets were trying to get their hands on the rubber formulation for the tires of the landing gear, and counterintelligence worked with manufacturers to leak the formula for the "worst rubber for the job ever". Keep trying to find where I stumbled on that, but it seems to be lost to the all seeing eye of the Internet now. Closest I get is references to Pavlov smuggling the plans for the landing gear assembly out of France. Give me two copies of something that you don't want to tell me how to make, one for destructive analysis, and one to compare against as a finished product, and I can at least filter out some false starts from the get-go.

goatinaboat 5y ago
Falls apart a bit if you're trying to nail down chemistry or something like an IC production process though where the equipment itself is built by people who will neither talk nor possibly sell to you. Turbine blades are like ICs in the sense that the secret sauce is in the materials and the manufacturing processes. You can imitate the exterior shape perfectly and it still be completely useless.