>>509632347
It's interesting isn't it. Raytheon had to recall old engineers to make stingers for Ukraine, because they realized no one actually knew how to make them anymore. Knowledge simply wasn't passed on.
https://www.defenseone.com/business/2023/06/raytheon-calls-retirees-help-restart-stinger-missile-production/388067/
>When the U.S. Army placed an order for 1,700 Stingers in May 2022, the Pentagon said the missiles wouldn’t be delivered until 2026. Kremer said it will take about 30 months for Stingers to start rolling off of the production line largely because of the time it takes to set up the factory and train its employees.
>“We were bringing back retired employees that are in their 70s … to teach our new employees how to actually build a Stinger,” Kremer said.
The real test is obviously going to be when China makes its move on Taiwan, Taiwan asks for weapons, and we say, "how about in a few years?". It's kind of sad that the only thing that makes leaders care about a real economy is war, but that's the way it is.
The economy can be a total fugazi based on nothing, until oh shit, we can't actually make anything. The consequences of the loss of real expertise and an innovative spirit is interesting to watch unfold. People who bring up that we should be training people to be the best their aptitude allows for is sometimes regarded as just being the good idea fairy and unrealistic, until wait, a country with 4x the population of the US has
>...shipbuilding capacity [that[ is significantly larger than that of the United States, with estimates ranging from 232 to over 632 times greater
Sinecures guard their positions like the entire world will end if things actually work better, it's bizarre to see. I mostly don't know shit about shit, but I know that 20,000% greater ability to make ships is not some magical choice they made, it's a totally different societal approach to productivity and capital allocation.
