The U.S. Military Relies on One Louisiana Factory. It Blew Up • Hacker News Board

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

#11

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 3:24 PM UTC

dsfyu404ed wrote: post #9

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…

I assume they're talking about trace amounts being used in primers and detonators.

[deleted]

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

#12

Post by diegoholiveira » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 3:32 PM UTC

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.

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

#13

Post by rjsw » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 3:33 PM UTC

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…

Royal Ordnance was privatized in 1987, most of the factories have closed now.

The UK had problems sourcing enough ammunition for Iraq and Afghanistan.

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

#14

Post by SubiculumCode » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 3:34 PM UTC

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?

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

#15

Post by ARandomerDude » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 3:35 PM UTC

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

In June of 2021. That doesn't invalidate some of the concerns expressed here about redundancy but it also isn't the "oh f!" moment you may have gathered from the headline.

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

#16

Post by phpisthebest » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 3:37 PM UTC

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

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

#17

Post by wmf » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 3:43 PM UTC

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

This factory isn't the supply chain; it's one small part. It's probably in Louisiana in the first place to satisfy that district's rep.

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

#18

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 3:44 PM UTC

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.

[deleted]

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

#19

Post by ESQBOJaguar » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 3:44 PM UTC

As someone who was in the military, in this exact field, we are trained on the importance, nay, necessity of redundancies. Interesting how those at the top never follow the directives/lessons they put out.

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

#20

Post by simonh » Thu, Apr 27, 2023, 3:45 PM UTC

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.