Grab a beverage.
Royal United Services Institute- The Return of Industrial Warfare
Currently, the West may not have the industrial capacity to fight a large-scale war. If the US government is planning to once again become the arsenal of democracy, then the existing capabilities of the US military-industrial base and the core assumptions that have driven its development need to be re-examined.
The winner in a prolonged war between two near-peer powers is still based on which side has the strongest industrial base. A country must either have the manufacturing capacity to build massive quantities of ammunition or have other manufacturing industries that can be rapidly converted to ammunition production. Unfortunately, the West no longer seems to have either.
The only war we can enter is the one that our Chinese overlords would permit. We have no manufacturing base.
I am disappointed to think that the US would not be able to fend off China in a non-nuclear conflict, for example, defending Taiwan.
We -still- get all our medical PPE from China. After 2 years of lock down and induced panic.
Imagine trying to make bullets in this country.
China only dominates some low-cost PPE
https://www.cato.org/blog/determining-americas-dependence-china-essential-medical-goods
Not that there’s anything wrong with getting it all from China. It has to come from somewhere.
For someone who whines about fascism, you sure love the CCP, which is as fascist as they come.
“I am disappointed to think that the US would not be able to fend off China in a non-nuclear conflict, for example, defending Taiwan.”
I think the US would roll over China so quickly that they probably wouldn’t even *need* to produce more ammunition. The weaponry and technology of China is no match for that possessed by the US Military.
You have not been watching China. Most of the tech the US has has been given to China or stolen by China.
I’m pretty sure the only facility in Canada still making welding gas is in Montreal. The only reason it is still there is federal government money.
If you don’t have gas you can’t cut, can’t weld, can’t bend metal. Going to be tough to kickstart a war economy with no welding gas.
We don’t need that we can just buy it from the Americans.
Until the Americans tell us to naff off because they don’t have enough themselves
… and they have had to earmark a bunch of it to keep Europe from collapsing after Russians begin retaliatory sanctions…
Hopefully they aren’t dumb enough to fall for autarky, and even if they are we don’t have to be.
I doubt they will. They share very robust and well-supported transportation and freight corridors facilitating trade with India, China, the Middle East, and Africa.
Quite a lot more than Germany has.
Russia will be fine. Europe without Russian resources? Rather less so.
The people who actually run this and every other country getting their hands dirty and producing products would agree.
But i have a laptop and work from home/s
We have equity and nuclear weapons.. You don’t think? they would be cleaning out all the traditional soldering from the military if they actually had a use for it.. They want social workers..
Oh well, nothing lasts forever..
Add into the equation that politicians and generals are more concerned with LBGTQ quotas and proper gender pronouns than they are with manning and equipping the armed forces and we are doomed.
Industrial capacity? For war?
For Chrissakes, the West isn’t even producing its own antibiotics. Guess where it’s getting that from?
“A 2011 report from the Food and Drug Administration, however, suggests that 40 percent of U.S. spending was on imported
medicine. The remaining 60 percent was spent on medicine produced in the United States. The drug market has
certainly changed since then, but this is the most recent estimate available.”
https://www.americanactionforum.org/print/?url=https://www.americanactionforum.org/insight/u-s-dependence-on-chinese-pharmaceuticals-overstated/
And Tylenol
I’m just comforted that Russia doesn’t have sufficient diversity in their army to be effective. Diversity is our strength. How could they possibly field an effective fighting force without fully integrating their LGBTQ2S+WTF communities?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGbe5qy5274
Not to mention they don’t have enough non-whites in their armed forces.
The entire world has known this for some time.
India, Russia and Iran have completed a rail/port corridor allowing them to bypass the west controlled Suez canal, for example. Russia has deployed military assets in Nicaragua, and Biden doesn’t say “boo”, and our media talks about LGBTQWTF in the navy and how racist their own people are, all the while continuing to shut down our own energy, agricultural and manufacturing sectors. The west delenda est.
The rest of the world plays realpolitik while the west gets confused merely playing with itself.
I am waiting for the Russians to start courting the Cartels in Mexico … supplying them with all manner of nasty stuff, just to eff with Uncle Sam (or is that Aunty Sam … or Uncle Samantha?)
They can hardly supply their own soldiers. This rail corridor and Nicaragua affair are all empty guff.
UnMe is a fine example of the western ability to keep its head stuffed deeply up its Colon.
???? Huh? You saying the Russians can’t ship captured Javelins and Manpads to the Cartels? Seriously?
That’s great, we can disband the overpriced DHS and NSA borders and trafficking functions, and save a boatload of dough!
I believe the correct honorific is “Asfutmsifwffutsh.”
This is why adult nations talk about having a Sovereign Capability and wokes – when they are not question the need in the first place – are asking why we don’t just buy direct and save all that money.
And when we talk about Sovereign Capability we are talking about through life support. Buying you shiny new piece of equipment is wonderful – now try operating it and then, assuming you can operate it, try upgrading it constantly.
What happens if you don’t have, for example, your own shipyards and you need your warships up on the blocks? You pay another nation to do the work for you.
And what happens to your ship when it is sitting in another nation out of the water? Well possession is Nine Tenths. Trust is the other Tenth. You have to hope your ‘friends’ don’t riddle your ship with grud knows what spy ware. You have to hope your ‘friends’ are still friends until you ship is handed back to you. If the political landscape was to change the return of your ship may be delayed. If it goes really pear shaped your warship may be seized. Hard irony is your equipment you paid for may end up in some situations being used against you. Do not make me give examples. This can and has happened.
Defence is a strange industry. Rightly or wrongly it has its own rules that are different from how the civilian market deals with problems. You need to maintain it as simply throwing outsiders at the problem during ‘ramp up’ doesn’t work.
Parabellum.
Or not. Up to you.