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The U.S. Military Relies on One Louisiana Factory. It Blew Up

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Re: The U.S. Military Relies on One Louisiana Factory. It Blew Up

#31

Post by phpisthebest »

brightball wrote: post #25
phpisthebest wrote: post #16

When it comes to defense spending this is abnormal Most of the time they want to put the supply chain across as many congressional districts as possible to make it politically hard to close any program as it would "cut jobs" in more districts much hard to cut spending if 10,000 jobs across 250 districts are impacted, then if 10,000 job across 5 districts are impacted

That has always been my understanding as well. The DoD would insist production be spread across multiple companies. Additionally, why in the world is this even public knowledge?

>>Additionally, why in the world is this even public knowledge?

Why would it not be. Government Secrecy should be opposed by anyone that wants a free society

You can not have a "Government for the people by the people" if the government is allowed to keep secrets from the people. Nor can voters properly select and hold representatives accountable if those people do not know what the government is doing

We have a MASSIVE problem with government secrecy right now, too much of what the government does, especially in military and "intelligence" is deemed to be "secret" for "national security". We need to be clawing back the power to hid things, and making more and more activity transparent, not hiding more

Re: The U.S. Military Relies on One Louisiana Factory. It Blew Up

#32

Post by pjc50 »

diegoholiveira wrote: post #12
bell-cot wrote: post #3

Ah, the [cough] wisdom of [gag] outsourcing mission-critical military activities to private enterprise. If you look at history - the British Crown started making their own gunpowder at the Tower of London, in the middle of the 13th Century . The British Board of Ordnance was formally constituted in 1683 , by HRM King Charles the Second . And if you look at the more-recent era, when the US started shutting down most o…

I’m not convinced that outsourcing it to private enterprise is bad. Outsourcing it overseas, that’s a really big issue.

Private companies will no longer discriminate against overseas staffing or, perhaps more importantly, ownership.

Re: The U.S. Military Relies on One Louisiana Factory. It Blew Up

#33

Post by Bran_son »

diegoholiveira wrote: post #12
bell-cot wrote: post #3

Ah, the [cough] wisdom of [gag] outsourcing mission-critical military activities to private enterprise. If you look at history - the British Crown started making their own gunpowder at the Tower of London, in the middle of the 13th Century . The British Board of Ordnance was formally constituted in 1683 , by HRM King Charles the Second . And if you look at the more-recent era, when the US started shutting down most o…

I’m not convinced that outsourcing it to private enterprise is bad. Outsourcing it overseas, that’s a really big issue.

A different perspective:

This conjunction of an immense military establishment and a large arms industry is new in the American experience. The total influence-economic, political, even spiritual-is felt in every city, every state house, every office of the Federal government. We recognize the imperative need for this development. Yet we must not fail to comprehend its grave implications. Our toil, resources and livelihood are all involved; so is the very structure of our society.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. - President Dwight D. Eisenhower's Farewell Address, 1961

https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwigh...

Re: The U.S. Military Relies on One Louisiana Factory. It Blew Up

#34

Post by biohax2015 »

pjc50 wrote: post #32
diegoholiveira wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not convinced that outsourcing it to private enterprise is bad. Outsourcing it overseas, that’s a really big issue.

Private companies will no longer discriminate against overseas staffing or, perhaps more importantly, ownership.

No way. Military contractors are barred from hiring overseas, or giving up ownership stakes to overseas entities. It's why they're great places to work if job security is your thing.

Re: The U.S. Military Relies on One Louisiana Factory. It Blew Up

#35

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

pjc50 wrote: post #32
diegoholiveira wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not convinced that outsourcing it to private enterprise is bad. Outsourcing it overseas, that’s a really big issue.

Private companies will no longer discriminate against overseas staffing or, perhaps more importantly, ownership.

The US doesn't allow critical military production infrastructure to be foreign owned.

Re: The U.S. Military Relies on One Louisiana Factory. It Blew Up

#37

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

bell-cot wrote: post #3

Ah, the [cough] wisdom of [gag] outsourcing mission-critical military activities to private enterprise. If you look at history - the British Crown started making their own gunpowder at the Tower of London, in the middle of the 13th Century . The British Board of Ordnance was formally constituted in 1683 , by HRM King Charles the Second . And if you look at the more-recent era, when the US started shutting down most o…

You are cherry-picking. By the end of WWII, Ford motor company was making 650 B-24 Liberators every month.

https://www.thehenryford.org/artifact/229817/

Re: The U.S. Military Relies on One Louisiana Factory. It Blew Up

#38

Post by akiselev »

nordsieck wrote: post #23
diegoholiveira wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m not convinced that outsourcing it to private enterprise is bad. Outsourcing it overseas, that’s a really big issue.

> I’m not convinced that outsourcing it to private enterprise is bad. Counterpoint: In every war that involves a substantial conventional component, there has been a huge ammunition shortage. Even though people know this, the phenomenon still exists. Private industry isn't going to maintain huge "burst" capacity. It's simply completely uneconomical. It's possible that a sort of public-private partnership could exist…

Based on what happened with the Strategic National Stockpile [1] right before COVID hit, I don’t have much confidence in government run capacity either:

> From 2017 to 2019, the Trump administration failed to replace masks and other supplies used in earlier disasters. In May 2020, in a House subcommittee meeting, whistle-blower Dr. Rick Bright, previous director of Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, explained that the Trump administration had ignored his early warnings to stock up on masks and other supplies to combat the coronavirus.

I’d like to think that we’ve learned our lesson with COVID and we can blame it all on the-administration-that-must-not-be-named but that’s naive. The supply problem has been growing in magnitude for decades and is likely caused in part by the same policies that lead to anticonsumer consolidation in the rest of the market.

Bring back trust busting!

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_National_Stockpile

Re: The U.S. Military Relies on One Louisiana Factory. It Blew Up

#39

Post by slowhand09 »

diegoholiveira wrote: post #12
bell-cot wrote: post #3

Ah, the [cough] wisdom of [gag] outsourcing mission-critical military activities to private enterprise. If you look at history - the British Crown started making their own gunpowder at the Tower of London, in the middle of the 13th Century . The British Board of Ordnance was formally constituted in 1683 , by HRM King Charles the Second . And if you look at the more-recent era, when the US started shutting down most o…

I’m not convinced that outsourcing it to private enterprise is bad. Outsourcing it overseas, that’s a really big issue.

That should also be weighed when decisions highly dependent on products such as petroleum, lithium, cobalt...

Re: The U.S. Military Relies on One Louisiana Factory. It Blew Up

#40

Post by SnaggyJoker »

simonh wrote: post #20
bell-cot wrote: post #3

Ah, the [cough] wisdom of [gag] outsourcing mission-critical military activities to private enterprise. If you look at history - the British Crown started making their own gunpowder at the Tower of London, in the middle of the 13th Century . The British Board of Ordnance was formally constituted in 1683 , by HRM King Charles the Second . And if you look at the more-recent era, when the US started shutting down most o…

In the west almost all but a small fraction of military procurement is satisfied by private industry. That was just as true in WW2 as it is today. The question is how you manage that.

That's one of the major unspoken reasons of why "too big to fail" corporations are bailed out.

They're also often used to supply things the government wants such as n95 masks during the pandemic.

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