8 ms·

US Military Failings Exposed

19 points by dlcmh 4y ago

User23 4y ago
> 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.
patriciaaa 4y ago
[dead]
hunglee2 4y ago
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
- longitudinal93 4y ago
  And thus we have Ukraine. Made to order to get us out of the trap we've manufactured.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
mountainriver 4y ago
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
- steponlego 4y ago
  Without Asian electronics components, alloys, etc. we couldn't build an electric combat pickle domestically here in the US.
  - dragontamer 4y ago
    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.
    - steponlego 4y ago
      I disagree, some kind of looming Chinese naval adventure could cut us off as quick as you like.
- lgvln 4y ago
  I'm going to have to ask: ... made us incredibly vulnerable to what? Losing our status as the most powerful nation? Impacting the livelihoods of our most vulnerable and in-need (citizens)?
- brianwawok 4y ago
  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.

19 points by dlcmh 4y ago

> 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.

patriciaaa 4y ago

[dead]

hunglee2 4y ago

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

longitudinal93 4y ago
And thus we have Ukraine. Made to order to get us out of the trap we've manufactured.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

mountainriver 4y ago

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

steponlego 4y ago
Without Asian electronics components, alloys, etc. we couldn't build an electric combat pickle domestically here in the US.
- dragontamer 4y ago
  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.
  - steponlego 4y ago
    I disagree, some kind of looming Chinese naval adventure could cut us off as quick as you like.
lgvln 4y ago
I'm going to have to ask: ... made us incredibly vulnerable to what? Losing our status as the most powerful nation? Impacting the livelihoods of our most vulnerable and in-need (citizens)?
brianwawok 4y ago
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.