Russia-Ukraine war and related tensions Megathread (user search)

Quote from: Virginiá on August 29, 2022, 08:47:24 PM

Quote from: NOVA Green on August 29, 2022, 08:10:30 PM

And another update from the WSJ for those you either interested in and/or following the US weapons inventory issues and supplies of weaponry to Ukraine.

As someone who works in the MFG sector this certainly makes sense, that it can be difficult to easily and quickly expand mfg capacity to meet product demand, even if you have backup lines which can be relatively easily converted from one product to another to meet a dramatic increase in demand, or to cover contingencies if there are significant issues causes disruptions from "large scale MFG lines" based out of Asia-Pacific region, and convert hybrid R&D and MFG lines to full scale 24x7 production models.

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True, but this quote kind of rings out as well, and I remember reading quotes from industry officials about this months ago:

Quote

“This was knowable. It was foreseeable. It was forewarned, including from industry leaders to the Pentagon. And it was easily fixable,” said Mackenzie Eaglen, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank in Washington.

[...]

But since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, industry officials have complained that the Pentagon hasn’t always communicated those requirements, which often change, creating delays, and leaving defense contractors unable to prepare for more production.

Honestly, the US should have started this at least 5 months ago. I feel like after a month of fighting, they should have had the foresight to quickly begin this process. US officials clearly knew early on that if the war wasn't quick, Ukraine was eventually going to need large quantities of 155mm artillery systems & ammunition. There also isn't a financial problem at hand given the amount of money flowing into this conflict from the US alone.

I won't speak to the intricacies of how quick the US could technically expand production if they threw lots of money at it, since I don't really know, but lines like this are quite frustrating:

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Speaking on an earnings call July 19, Jim Taiclet, chief executive of Lockheed Martin Corp., said the Pentagon has yet to put the contracts in place or coordinate with industry to buy more supplies, a process that often takes two to three years.

We might never know what is possible because apparently the US has made little to no effort to get new contracts going, let alone "speed up" production. This sucks for Ukraine but quite honestly doesn't make the DoD look very competent.

Amazing!

Fearmongering at it's finest, the DOD has a hard line that they won't cross as far as depleting stocks, they know what they need to hold back.

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