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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

#51

Post by mrguyorama »

akiselev wrote: post #38
nordsieck wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Maybe we shouldn't elect presidents who make it their mission to destroy anything the previous administration built?

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

#52

Post by mrguyorama »

slowhand09 wrote: post #45
SubiculumCode wrote: post #14

This is frustrating to square with the large military expenditures we make in this country. What is the use of the most advanced weaponry if you cannot produce them yourself when shit hits the fan?

If only we had some sort of national leader saying "Made in America" is good...

You mean the one selling hats and other memorabilia made in china?

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

#53

Post by scottyah »

ahelwer wrote: post #26
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #7

I get that this sort of headline makes for a great circle jerk but let's be real here, the military isn't as stupid as HN likes to imply. Rife with perverse incentives that keep things from being done ideally? Yes, but not stupid. The military is also rife with ass-covering careerists so if some nobody on HN can think of a way they can do it better then someone in the system has almost certainly thought about it and…

The purpose of the military is not to be an effective fighting force. That is, at most, a happy side effect. The purpose is to shovel as much public money as possible into the private companies comprising the military industrial complex. So your efficient-market-hypothesis-but-for-the-military idea is essentially just not even wrong.

There's a group of people for whom that may be true, but it's certainly not a driver for the majority of people in the military.

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

#54

Post by dsfyu404ed »

bell-cot wrote: post #24
dsfyu404ed wrote: post #7

I get that this sort of headline makes for a great circle jerk but let's be real here, the military isn't as stupid as HN likes to imply. Rife with perverse incentives that keep things from being done ideally? Yes, but not stupid. The military is also rife with ass-covering careerists so if some nobody on HN can think of a way they can do it better then someone in the system has almost certainly thought about it and…

Guess: Most folks on HN realize that "the military", in the sense of "the current general and admirals", have damn little influence over these outsourcing, single-sourcing, etc. decisions. That is mostly controlled by Congress, via the budget purse-strings. And Congress in term is mostly controlled by...

>Most folks on HN realize that "the military", in the sense of "the current general and admirals", have damn little influence over these outsourcing, single-sourcing, etc. decisions. That is mostly controlled by Congress,

I think your claim is way to optimistic in light of the fact there are other people claiming that the LCS boondoggle is the fault of faulty procurement and not Congress.

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

#55

Post by SubiculumCode »

slowhand09 wrote: post #45
SubiculumCode wrote: post #14

This is frustrating to square with the large military expenditures we make in this country. What is the use of the most advanced weaponry if you cannot produce them yourself when shit hits the fan?

If only we had some sort of national leader saying "Made in America" is good...

You mean both the current and last president? Our military strategic leaders well know the predicament, and have been pulling back outsourcing of strategic necessities. Look at their actions, not the bluster. And for factual information, try The Truth of the Matter podcast by CSIS.

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

#56

Post by yawpitch »

mrguyorama wrote: post #51
akiselev wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Maybe we shouldn't elect presidents who make it their mission to destroy anything the previous administration built?

Depends entirely on precisely what the previous administration built, don’t you think?

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

#57

Post by Canada »

Clubber wrote: post #5

>Today, it is a specialty commodity with few commercial applications—mostly for rocket hobbyists—but it’s still used in more than 300 munitions, from cruise missiles, to bullets for M16 rifles, to the vital 155mm shells. I don't know about the others, but M16 rifle rounds don't use black powder, they use modern smokeless powder. By modern, I mean invented in 1884. I would be surprised if any of those other things men…

The article suggests that the blackpower is used to make cartridge primers. I'm not sure if that is true or not.

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

#59

Post by ahelwer »

scottyah wrote: post #53
ahelwer wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The purpose of the military is not to be an effective fighting force. That is, at most, a happy side effect. The purpose is to shovel as much public money as possible into the private companies comprising the military industrial complex. So your efficient-market-hypothesis-but-for-the-military idea is essentially just not even wrong.

There's a group of people for whom that may be true, but it's certainly not a driver for the majority of people in the military.

The will of the majority of people in the military is irrelevant, because they don't call the shots. The military is not a democracy.

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

#60

Post by bell-cot »

Ancapistani wrote: post #48
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…

> 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. This is true, but is far more about the scarcity of saltpeter at the time than anything else.

So if gunpowder is 75% saltpeter, and His Royal Majesty wished to have a plentiful & reliable supply of gunpowder, then ...

(I don't know about the sulfur situation back then, but charcoal - the 3rd ingredient in gunpowder - could hardly be in short supply.)

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