During V/N we had to buy back WW II dumb bomb casings we sold for scrap.
During DS 1 we did not have, nor could we build air filters for the M1's fast enough.
During the uke vs Russia game of tag we had issue with 155 shell production
Now I'm hearing we are having a missile on the shelf & production issue to the point we can't supply Israel in quantity w/o shorting ourselves., as they are pulling stocks from the EU.
Kind of wondering how this latest issue would shake out if China made a move.
So the question, is the MIC in over drive & was it planned that way?
Not heard of number 1, but not surprising. Rolling Thunder, Linebacker, etc. used up a lot of dumb bombs. That said, hard to think that scrapped casings could be made ready for filling faster than new ones. Esp, in an era when US Steel was still king. But certainly plausible.
DS1, IIRC, the filters were for some of the Helicopters. But the tanks were turbines as well. So would not surprise me. But I don't remember it. What I 'do' distinctly remember is that we were dropping ordnance extra-fast because much of it from Europe was coming up on expiration and after Cold War would have needed expensive shipping back to CONUS to dismantle. But by dropping it, the USAF saved the taxpayer a ton of money. Hundreds of millions... so might as well put 30 bombs on that one tank. Because each one being dropped was a net positive for the treasury!
155 Shells... not surprising. But would have to look that up. I think I saw something on SH about it. I am sure Google would turn something up.
MIC makes what is ordered. But the bigger questions are... if all our big steel mills are shut down, where do we get the steel? Where do we get the aluminum? How long before some of the Rare Earths come online from other sources. We're not like we were in the 60's or even the '80's. Just look at Pittsburgh and Allentown. Oh and all those fancy CNC machines used to make everything... pretty vulnerable to electronic attack or a power failure. And we simply don't have any of the old analog machines any more. Sold for scrap or to third world nations. And we certainly don't have the people to run them. All button-pushers now.
So... whatever we might want, we better make sure we have the manufacturing AND the raw materials capability to support it. Yeah, we are an information economy. Bullshit... no value in 'information' except that it helps turn ore into finished products more efficiently. And we can't do the latter, but are awash in useless information.
Sirhr
