What kind of superpower can’t make parts for their military?
American troops drive 10,000 Humvees in Iraq. But
if the U.S. Army suddenly needed 10,000 more of the slab-sided trucks for the
war, the Indiana factory that makes them could not soon deliver.
American troops drive 10,000 Humvees in Iraq. But if the U.S. Army suddenly needed 10,000 more of the slab-sided trucks for the war, the Indiana factory that makes them could not soon deliver.
Tooling and machine shops that supply critical Humvee parts, such as extra-large 3.5-inch shock absorber bolts, aren’t prepared to gear up output quickly.
“The industrial base just isn’t there if we ever had to surge production,'’ said Craig MacNab, spokesman at South Bend-based AM General, whose cavernous 1,100- employee Mishawaka plant is the Humvee’s sole producer.
It’s not only army trucks the U.S. might have trouble producing in large numbers. For the first time since America emerged as a first-rank war and industrial power in the 1890s, some U.S. military planners openly doubt the country’s manufacturers can sustain the nation in a major war larger than the Iraq conflict.
“What kind of superpower are you if you can’t make what you need?'’ asked systems engineer Sheila Ronis, a lecturer at the Pentagon’s Industrial College of the Armed Forces.
Since 1933, the Buy American Act has governed defense procurement. Last year, U.S. suppliers netted $79 billion in Pentagon contracts, compared with foreign firms’ $1.9 billion. However, Ronis, a director of the foundation supporting the Pentagon’s National Defense University, contends America’s weapons components supply chain now runs to China, France, Germany, Japan and other nations.
That’s because U.S. companies spend an undisclosed share of that $79 billion on imported parts. As a result, China supplies as much as 10 percent of the parts for the U.S. Army’s M1 Abrams main battle tank, Ronis suggested.
If overseas supply lines were disrupted, U.S. manufacturers could step in. In many cases, though, engineers could not quickly scale up production. Much of the factory manufacturing equipment also comes from abroad.
In 2004, a third of the new U.S. metalworking machinery was imported, along with almost 46 percent of the process control instruments and nearly a quarter of the relays and industrial controls…
The introduction of global standards and measurements has made possible “universal” specification of numerous components and subsystems — for any class of manufactured goods. Does that add anything to our economy when assigned priorities don’t especially include a self-sustaining infrastructure.
Posted: Sat - October 14, 2006 at 05:29 AM