HN

Comments (200)

• Menu

  Zigurd
  This is like confusing range with mileage. The solution to your truck having to gas up frequently isn't necessarily to get a bigger gas tank. Instead ask yourself was this trip to Iran necessary?
• Menu

  goda90
  A munitions plant was built near my hometown in the 40s and used on and off until the 70s(though it stayed intact for decades longer). They took some of the best quality farmland in the state despite protests when they built it. Now the ground is quite contaminated, and so is the groundwater.I would hope we someday learn to stop polluting our world in the pursuit of killing each other.
• Menu

  dhx
  Perun (Australian military procurement geek) presented the maths for missile defence vs. attack and it's heavily weighted in favour of the attacker.[1] He also previously analysed the Ukrainian truck-full-of-drones attack against a Russian airbase and it was in this video (sorry no link I can't find it quickly) I think he investigated whether the cost-benefit exists to bury military and critical infrastructure underground (or use heavily hardened buildings).Both topics are very relevant to the current conflicts of eastern Europe and the middle east. Perhaps I took away the wrong message but I don't think Perun would propose to stockpile interceptor missiles any time soon.[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpFhNXecrb4&t=2382s
• Menu

  gumby
  Ukraine technological flexibility reflects their organizational incentives. Front line users are in communication with the manufacturers; those same front line users choose the weapon (and vendor) they want, so feedback is rapid and since word gets around, good equipment is quickly adopted and becomes popular until something better replaces it.The US military procurement is the opposite of this.One reason procurement is slow is to avoid fraud.* Ukrainse hasn’t managed to eliminate that. Perhaps there is a balance, when you’re under fire at least.* in the US, procurement fraud looks quite different (e.g. having anpart for your weapon made in every congressional district, a tactic developed for the B-1)
• Menu

  robertclaus
  Reading up on some of these systems is wild. For example THAAD munitions are wildly expensive, but also a ballistic projectile that physically knocks hypersonic missiles out of the air in flight 200km away. Ultimately $13 million seems reasonable to save a few city blocks in a major city. It just doesn't make sense to use against small arms like disposable drones.
• panicinducer
  Given what the Department of War does with the munitions, hopefully not quickly at all.
• cwmoore
  If “magazine breadth” does not include submarine drone assembly ships I’d be surprised.
• Menu

  Mashimo
  Never heard about RTX, turns out it's Raytheon.
• pluc
  How quickly can the DoD rebuild the DoD is the question.
• Menu

  SubiculumCode
  Isn't the strategy to nearshore production, and recent moves in South America were potentially done to reduce Chinese/Iranian/Russian influence in those regions?
• Menu

  Aeolun
  Surely, knowing what the requirements are, we can build a cheaper Tomahawk missile these days, right?SpaceX does the whole rocket launch thing for a fraction of the cost of the space shuttle. GPS is not that complicated any more and all the processing power required fits in a chip the size of a cellphone.But those things cost 2.5M a piece?
• Menu

  belZaah
  Ukraine, for whatever reason, was denied access to the DARPA innovation pipeline early on. Thus, they had to make their own to survive. Now, not only is there something moving much faster, than that flow of innovation but also there’s a hunch of adversaries, who have picked up on it. That’s what you get for the lack of strategic thinking. Your decisions are not terminal, your moves are not the finishing ones. Others get to make theirs as well. And you might not at all like where these moves will take you.
• myko
  probably a lot more quickly with a future administration that isn't skimming off the top everywhere
• jocelyner
  [flagged]
• thenayr
  [dead]
• leopoldcongo
  [flagged]
• Menu

  jmspamerton
  What's the DOD? Are you referring to the War Department?
• metalman
  bullshit.this has nothing to do with manufacturing capacity, and everything to do with the wildest,most out of control, corrupt, total conversion to a rabid , industrial cleptocracy.a case to study is the comisoning of the latest british aircraft carrier, they did get it built, launched, and as stated commisoned, but as no one greased the huge ,wildly expensive, propellor shaft, it siezed , the d o t s dont connect, and every single last person in the whole fucking mess,instictivly knows that to actualy touch or be associated with grease, is a career ending move, and now a year later they still cant figure out what happened, but whewwee, it turned out good, as they can all pass the shilling,' nope cant show up, sorry, but realy we cant make it to your war,we have contracts to fill, ta!'
• Menu

  doctorpangloss
  i don't know. the DoD is planning for the wrong wars. the bloodiest war in the US was the civil war.