Munitions Shortage question.
Robert and the gang have been mentioning the depletion of US weapon stockpiles, and the lack of capacity in industry to replenish them in a reasonable timeframe. This rubs up against some informed assumptions I’ve made.
I always assumed that we were paying a premium to our domestic weapons manufacturers so that they could maintain the skills and capacity to ramp up production in the event we needed it. That’s to say, we pay 1,000,000 per glide bomb currently, because we’re buying 100/annum (assumed minimum order quantity), but if we needed them to make 500 per year they could, and each bomb would cost 500,000. Same thing for warplanes and armor. We pay a premium to keep the lights on in case we need to rapidly make more.
I feel like I absorbed this idea from The West Wing (sponsored by cocaine). But it seems like the most rational coke-rant I’ve heard, and I’m really shocked to find out we’re paying through the nose for these horrifying weapons and we can’t even replace them at pace with demand.
Anyone else surprised by this (outside of the DoD)?
P.s Shoutout to my homies at Raytheon and General Dynamics for making *the most bespoke* weapons systems in modern warfare.