Surrender to Xijinping or die!
https://www.defensenews.com/pentago...k-and-the-military-may-feel-the-consequences/
Pentagon
America’s industrial base is at risk, and the military may feel the consequences
By: Aaron Mehta 1 day ago
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Production lines for military equipment might face challenges in the future, as the industrial base ages out. (Jeff Martin/Staff)
WASHINGTON ― Underneath the rosy picture of a strong U.S. defense industry lies a demographic challenge for the workforce and contraction issues, a new government study has concluded.
The annual Industrial Capabilities report, quietly released May 17 by the Pentagon’s Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy, found that America’s defense industry continued to outperform other industrial sectors in fiscal 2017.
However, long-term trends “continue to threaten the health of the industrial base, limit innovation, and reduce U.S. competitiveness in the global markets,” the report states.
The greatest challenge that could harm domestic defense capabilities is the demographics of the workforce. Only 39 percent of the current workforce is under the age of 45. And while jobs in the aerospace and defense sectors are seen positively by the majority of young professionals, only 1.5 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds in the U.S. have a science degree.
American exodus? 17,000 US defense suppliers may have left the defense sector
A large number of American companies that supply the U.S. military may have left the defense market, a report says, raising alarm over the health and future of the defense industrial base.
By: Joe Gould
Taken together, the challenge is obvious to the authors of the report: Aerospace and defense companies are “faced with a shortage of qualified workers to meet current demands as well as needing to integrate a younger workforce with the ‘right skills, aptitude, experience, and interest to step into the jobs vacated by senior-level engineers and skilled technicians’ as they exit the workforce.”
The report notes that the Department of Defense had a trio of meetings with the Aerospace Industries Association in FY17 to address workforce issues, with promises for those dialogues to continue in the future.
Service breakdown
The report also describes what it sees as the biggest threats to the industrial base for different domains of warfare.
According to the Pentagon, the biggest risk for the aerospace sector is its ability to “sustain the design and manufacturing skills and capabilities needed for future aircraft design and manufacture.” Specifically, the authors of the report are concerned that “foreign dependency, single or sole sources, and financial viability continue presenting a risk for the aircraft” puts lower-tier suppliers at risk in the defense and aerospace sector.
RELATED: The risks facing the Pentagon’s high-end electronics and radars
RELATED: The US is running out of bombs — and it may soon struggle to make more
For the ground vehicle sector, the Pentagon is concerned that a lack of innovation over the last decade has led to stagnation, and hence “any new combat vehicle design will face cost, schedule, and performance challenges.” And notably, the authors warn that around the world, combat vehicles are slowly approaching parity with the U.S. at a time that “the lack of new development programs for tracked systems is challenging the U.S. ability to innovate in this subsector.”
/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-mco.s3.amazonaws.com/public/UQV4NVRRBVDBJHS2JB5DBUZX64.JPG)
The defense-industrial base continues to outpace other sectors, but there are worrisome trends in the future, a new report has found. (U.S. Defense Department)
The shipbuilding sector remained stable for FY17, but continues to face potential consequences if something were to happen to the small, highly concentrated industrial base. The DoD should continue to closely monitor shipbuilder workload to ensure enough production exists to keep the industrial base alive, the report says.
The space sector is “increasingly dependent” on the commercial market, which evermore so is focused on nonmilitary launches. While that has provided technological developments in the last decade, it also means certain parts and qualifications used for national security space missions are in short supply. “Unless a timely investment to establish a domestic capability is made, the United States will be at high risk of putting multiple [national security] programs in jeopardy,” the report found.
There are also major concerns about the “organic industrial base” ― those internal suppliers who handle acquisition, sustainment and maintenance issues. But the infrastructure that makes up the organic industrial base is struggling mightily, which is impacting the ability to do work in a timely fashion. For example, each year, a “significant number of work stoppages are attributable to the age and condition” of the naval shipyard infrastructure, which is on average seven years older than industry standard.
Merger and acquisitions activity remained steady from the previous fiscal year, with 13 potential mergers reviewed by the DoD. But the total value of transactions increased from previous levels, thanks in part to three major mergers and acquisitions ― United Technologies’ acquisition of Rockwell Collins, Northrop Grumman’s acquisition of Orbital ATK and Ultra Electronics’ planned acquisition of Sparton Corporation.
https://www.defensenews.com/electro...he-pentagons-high-end-electronics-and-radars/
Pentagon
The risks facing the Pentagon’s high-end electronics and radars
By: Aaron Mehta 1 day ago
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The industrial base for America's electronic warfare and radar capabilities faces an uncertain future, a new report has found. (Jonathan Snyder/U.S. Air Force)
WASHINGTON ― A new Pentagon report warns that the supply chain for high-end electronics and rare materials is increasingly at risk, likely putting radar and electronic warfare capabilities in danger as the Department of Defense relies more on these items.
Among the concerns highlighted by the annual industrial capabilities report from the Pentagon’s Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy is how to make sure the supply of key electronics components is always available to meet department demands. The report was quietly released on a department website May 17.
Part of the challenge for the department is the reality that it has “limited leverage” to influence the electronics industry, as global military production represents only 6 percent of the overall market.
RELATED: America’s industrial base is at risk, and the military may feel the consequences
While DoD can drive other areas in certain directions through research and development funding – for instance, pushing for hypersonics by investing heavily in that sector and offering the dream of large contracts in the near-future for industry partners who play along – the electronics sector has too many larger, less difficult clients it wants to please to be swayed.
Meanwhile, the ability of DoD to assure its microelectronics are not compromised is “increasingly difficult,” thanks to the global nature of production on these vital parts. For instance, the printed circuit board market hit $60 billion in 2015, so there should be plenty of suppliers for the department.
But half of that market is owned by Chinese firms and the U.S. share is down to around 5 percent, the report said.
Instead, DoD is investing in domestic microelectronics production through the Manufacturing USA initiative; it has also launched a Microelectronic Innovation for National Security and Economic Competitiveness strategy to try and find solutions to the reliance on internationally-produced goods. But how much impact such programs can have remains unclear.
RELATED: The US is running out of bombs — and it may soon struggle to make more
Many of the challenges identified in the electronics sector are reflected in the radars and EW industrial base, including sourcing of high-end components. But there is a specific concern about innovation and competition for tactical active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar systems.
Right now, the department has 17 radar programs in procurement, five programs in development, and 73 programs in sustainment. Of those, Raytheon (five procurement, two development, 19 sustainment), Northrop Grumman (six procurement, 13 sustainment) and Lockheed Martin (one procurement, one development, 16 sustainment) dominate the market.
Interview: DoD's Tracy Frost offers a status check on Manufacturing USA
Tracy Frost, the Pentagon’s director of DoD Manufacturing Institutes and the acting head of the DoD Manufacturing Technologies (ManTech) program,explains how her program works and why the defense industry should get involved.
By: Aaron Mehta
“Radar production for all but the F-35 tactical AESA radar will stop within the FYDP [future years defense program],” the authors conclude. “At that time, the DoD will have a single qualified source. Without stable funding for a development effort through the FYDP, the next generation of radar systems will not be ready for future fighter aircraft and there will not be a competitive industrial base for advanced radar systems.”
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There are also concerns about availability of crucial parts. Currently, there are single domestic sources for high-frequency traveling wave tubes (used largely in older EW systems), samarium-cobalt magnets, and high-temperature ceramic packaging for AESA systems. And there is a foreign dependency for tungsten – 3 percent rhenium wire, used also in older systems.
Which brings up another core problem: the availability of vital, rare materials
At the same time the United States is using a greater range of materials, contributing to their scarcity, the country is also growing more reliant on foreign sources for those materials. In 1980, the authors note, the U.S. imported 50 percent or more of its needs on only 20 different materials; that number had doubled by 2014.
There are a number of mitigation efforts underway in the materials realm, many of which are classified due to the sensitive nature of what materials are at risk, the authors note. But broadly speaking, there are authorities available should there be a shortage of needed materials that would allow department needs to be prioritized over civil and commercial requirements in time of conflict.
https://www.rt.com/usa/427593-pentagon-report-munitions-bombs/
Fragile: Pentagon report raises alarm that US industry can’t support war for much longer
Published time: 23 May, 2018 20:51 Edited time: 23 May, 2018 23:56
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Guided Bomb Unit 32s on a munitions assembly conveyor at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia © Kayla Newman / Reuters
Between globalization and nearly 20 years of constant warfare, the industrial part of the US military-industrial complex is not looking so good, putting future wars at risk, according to a new Pentagon report.
The Annual Industrial Capabilities report, published by the Pentagon’s Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy, warns that reliance on foreign-sourced materials combined with “twenty years of intermittent conflict,” have put a strain on US manufacturers of weapons, parts and ammunition.
“While US national defense demands for materials are seldom unmet, there exist risks to their supply now and risks are anticipated in the foreseeable future,” the report says, describing the two broad trends as the scarcity of materials used in new technologies and the US’ growing reliance on foreign supply sources.
Read more
US defense stocks skyrocket thanks to America's adventures in the Middle East – RT's Keiser Report
Both US economic security and national defense are at risk due to “high US import reliance on foreign countries who may become adversaries and cut off peacetime supply during future conflicts,” the report says.
One example is Dechlorane, a flame retardant used in insulation on all US missile systems. The sole source of the material is the Belgian company Occidental Chemical. Worse yet, the precursor to make Dechlorane used to come from China, but is no longer available, “so there is now no source for Dechlorane in the world.”
US fighter jets rely on Sidewinder and AMRAAM air-to-air missiles to dominate the skies, but what happens when they run out? The sole source of dimeryl diisocyanate, a key ingredient in the missiles’ propellant, has informed the Pentagon that it will be leaving the business soon, leaving the US with “no qualified source,” according to the report.
One of the biggest problems noted by the Pentagon is the lack of diversity in the industrial base. About 97 percent of the DoD funds for missile and munitions procurement goes to just two companies, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. Almost all second- and third-tier suppliers of munitions components, 98 percent in both instances, are sole sources.
Of particular concern to the report’s authors were thermal batteries, solid rocket motors (SRM), fuzes and small turbine engines, which all rely on just one or two manufacturers.
President Donald Trump has raised the Pentagon’s funding in order to rebuild the “depleted” military and launched a crusade to revive US manufacturing, but that may not be enough.
Read more
$21 trillion lost: Largest theft in history buried under guise of US national security – Lee Camp
“We may be too far down the path to resurrect an authentic munitions industrial base,” Mackenzie Eaglen of the American Enterprise Institute told Defense News, commenting on the report. “So then the question becomes: Now what?”
With the US capability to produce vital parts and materials for weapons systems and ammunition dwindling, Washington is facing the risk that “a conflict with China could rely on Chinese-made parts,” Defense News noted.
Munitions aren’t the only problem either. Maintenance has been hit just as hard by the years of “overuse and underfunding” of industrial infrastructure, according to the report. US naval shipyards, for example, have not been able to meet the maintenance needs, resulting in compounding problems.
The neglect has been so severe that “in fiscal years 2000 through 2016, inadequate facilities and equipment led to maintenance delays that contributed in part to more than 1,300 lost operational days… for aircraft carriers and 12,500 lost operational days for submarines.”
A January report by the Pentagon’s director of operations and testing noted that half of the F-35 stealth fighter fleet is not mission capable due to supply and maintenance problems. Lockheed Martin’s futuristic fighter has a lifetime cost estimated at over $1 trillion.
https://www.defensenews.com/pentago...k-and-the-military-may-feel-the-consequences/
Pentagon
America’s industrial base is at risk, and the military may feel the consequences
By: Aaron Mehta 1 day ago
AddThis Sharing Buttons
Share to Facebook206Share to TwitterShare to Google+Share to EmailShare to More65
Production lines for military equipment might face challenges in the future, as the industrial base ages out. (Jeff Martin/Staff)
WASHINGTON ― Underneath the rosy picture of a strong U.S. defense industry lies a demographic challenge for the workforce and contraction issues, a new government study has concluded.
The annual Industrial Capabilities report, quietly released May 17 by the Pentagon’s Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy, found that America’s defense industry continued to outperform other industrial sectors in fiscal 2017.
However, long-term trends “continue to threaten the health of the industrial base, limit innovation, and reduce U.S. competitiveness in the global markets,” the report states.
The greatest challenge that could harm domestic defense capabilities is the demographics of the workforce. Only 39 percent of the current workforce is under the age of 45. And while jobs in the aerospace and defense sectors are seen positively by the majority of young professionals, only 1.5 percent of 25- to 34-year-olds in the U.S. have a science degree.
American exodus? 17,000 US defense suppliers may have left the defense sector
A large number of American companies that supply the U.S. military may have left the defense market, a report says, raising alarm over the health and future of the defense industrial base.
By: Joe Gould
Taken together, the challenge is obvious to the authors of the report: Aerospace and defense companies are “faced with a shortage of qualified workers to meet current demands as well as needing to integrate a younger workforce with the ‘right skills, aptitude, experience, and interest to step into the jobs vacated by senior-level engineers and skilled technicians’ as they exit the workforce.”
The report notes that the Department of Defense had a trio of meetings with the Aerospace Industries Association in FY17 to address workforce issues, with promises for those dialogues to continue in the future.
Service breakdown
The report also describes what it sees as the biggest threats to the industrial base for different domains of warfare.
According to the Pentagon, the biggest risk for the aerospace sector is its ability to “sustain the design and manufacturing skills and capabilities needed for future aircraft design and manufacture.” Specifically, the authors of the report are concerned that “foreign dependency, single or sole sources, and financial viability continue presenting a risk for the aircraft” puts lower-tier suppliers at risk in the defense and aerospace sector.
RELATED: The risks facing the Pentagon’s high-end electronics and radars
RELATED: The US is running out of bombs — and it may soon struggle to make more
For the ground vehicle sector, the Pentagon is concerned that a lack of innovation over the last decade has led to stagnation, and hence “any new combat vehicle design will face cost, schedule, and performance challenges.” And notably, the authors warn that around the world, combat vehicles are slowly approaching parity with the U.S. at a time that “the lack of new development programs for tracked systems is challenging the U.S. ability to innovate in this subsector.”
The defense-industrial base continues to outpace other sectors, but there are worrisome trends in the future, a new report has found. (U.S. Defense Department)
The shipbuilding sector remained stable for FY17, but continues to face potential consequences if something were to happen to the small, highly concentrated industrial base. The DoD should continue to closely monitor shipbuilder workload to ensure enough production exists to keep the industrial base alive, the report says.
The space sector is “increasingly dependent” on the commercial market, which evermore so is focused on nonmilitary launches. While that has provided technological developments in the last decade, it also means certain parts and qualifications used for national security space missions are in short supply. “Unless a timely investment to establish a domestic capability is made, the United States will be at high risk of putting multiple [national security] programs in jeopardy,” the report found.
There are also major concerns about the “organic industrial base” ― those internal suppliers who handle acquisition, sustainment and maintenance issues. But the infrastructure that makes up the organic industrial base is struggling mightily, which is impacting the ability to do work in a timely fashion. For example, each year, a “significant number of work stoppages are attributable to the age and condition” of the naval shipyard infrastructure, which is on average seven years older than industry standard.
Merger and acquisitions activity remained steady from the previous fiscal year, with 13 potential mergers reviewed by the DoD. But the total value of transactions increased from previous levels, thanks in part to three major mergers and acquisitions ― United Technologies’ acquisition of Rockwell Collins, Northrop Grumman’s acquisition of Orbital ATK and Ultra Electronics’ planned acquisition of Sparton Corporation.
https://www.defensenews.com/electro...he-pentagons-high-end-electronics-and-radars/
Pentagon
The risks facing the Pentagon’s high-end electronics and radars
By: Aaron Mehta 1 day ago
AddThis Sharing Buttons
Share to FacebookShare to TwitterShare to Google+Share to EmailShare to More
The industrial base for America's electronic warfare and radar capabilities faces an uncertain future, a new report has found. (Jonathan Snyder/U.S. Air Force)
WASHINGTON ― A new Pentagon report warns that the supply chain for high-end electronics and rare materials is increasingly at risk, likely putting radar and electronic warfare capabilities in danger as the Department of Defense relies more on these items.
Among the concerns highlighted by the annual industrial capabilities report from the Pentagon’s Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy is how to make sure the supply of key electronics components is always available to meet department demands. The report was quietly released on a department website May 17.
Part of the challenge for the department is the reality that it has “limited leverage” to influence the electronics industry, as global military production represents only 6 percent of the overall market.
RELATED: America’s industrial base is at risk, and the military may feel the consequences
While DoD can drive other areas in certain directions through research and development funding – for instance, pushing for hypersonics by investing heavily in that sector and offering the dream of large contracts in the near-future for industry partners who play along – the electronics sector has too many larger, less difficult clients it wants to please to be swayed.
Meanwhile, the ability of DoD to assure its microelectronics are not compromised is “increasingly difficult,” thanks to the global nature of production on these vital parts. For instance, the printed circuit board market hit $60 billion in 2015, so there should be plenty of suppliers for the department.
But half of that market is owned by Chinese firms and the U.S. share is down to around 5 percent, the report said.
Instead, DoD is investing in domestic microelectronics production through the Manufacturing USA initiative; it has also launched a Microelectronic Innovation for National Security and Economic Competitiveness strategy to try and find solutions to the reliance on internationally-produced goods. But how much impact such programs can have remains unclear.
RELATED: The US is running out of bombs — and it may soon struggle to make more
Many of the challenges identified in the electronics sector are reflected in the radars and EW industrial base, including sourcing of high-end components. But there is a specific concern about innovation and competition for tactical active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar systems.
Right now, the department has 17 radar programs in procurement, five programs in development, and 73 programs in sustainment. Of those, Raytheon (five procurement, two development, 19 sustainment), Northrop Grumman (six procurement, 13 sustainment) and Lockheed Martin (one procurement, one development, 16 sustainment) dominate the market.
Interview: DoD's Tracy Frost offers a status check on Manufacturing USA
Tracy Frost, the Pentagon’s director of DoD Manufacturing Institutes and the acting head of the DoD Manufacturing Technologies (ManTech) program,explains how her program works and why the defense industry should get involved.
By: Aaron Mehta
“Radar production for all but the F-35 tactical AESA radar will stop within the FYDP [future years defense program],” the authors conclude. “At that time, the DoD will have a single qualified source. Without stable funding for a development effort through the FYDP, the next generation of radar systems will not be ready for future fighter aircraft and there will not be a competitive industrial base for advanced radar systems.”
Sign up for our Early Bird Brief
Get the defense industry's most comprehensive news and information straight to your inbox
There are also concerns about availability of crucial parts. Currently, there are single domestic sources for high-frequency traveling wave tubes (used largely in older EW systems), samarium-cobalt magnets, and high-temperature ceramic packaging for AESA systems. And there is a foreign dependency for tungsten – 3 percent rhenium wire, used also in older systems.
Which brings up another core problem: the availability of vital, rare materials
At the same time the United States is using a greater range of materials, contributing to their scarcity, the country is also growing more reliant on foreign sources for those materials. In 1980, the authors note, the U.S. imported 50 percent or more of its needs on only 20 different materials; that number had doubled by 2014.
There are a number of mitigation efforts underway in the materials realm, many of which are classified due to the sensitive nature of what materials are at risk, the authors note. But broadly speaking, there are authorities available should there be a shortage of needed materials that would allow department needs to be prioritized over civil and commercial requirements in time of conflict.
https://www.rt.com/usa/427593-pentagon-report-munitions-bombs/
Fragile: Pentagon report raises alarm that US industry can’t support war for much longer
Published time: 23 May, 2018 20:51 Edited time: 23 May, 2018 23:56
Get short URL
Guided Bomb Unit 32s on a munitions assembly conveyor at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia © Kayla Newman / Reuters
Between globalization and nearly 20 years of constant warfare, the industrial part of the US military-industrial complex is not looking so good, putting future wars at risk, according to a new Pentagon report.
The Annual Industrial Capabilities report, published by the Pentagon’s Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy, warns that reliance on foreign-sourced materials combined with “twenty years of intermittent conflict,” have put a strain on US manufacturers of weapons, parts and ammunition.
“While US national defense demands for materials are seldom unmet, there exist risks to their supply now and risks are anticipated in the foreseeable future,” the report says, describing the two broad trends as the scarcity of materials used in new technologies and the US’ growing reliance on foreign supply sources.
Read more
US defense stocks skyrocket thanks to America's adventures in the Middle East – RT's Keiser Report Both US economic security and national defense are at risk due to “high US import reliance on foreign countries who may become adversaries and cut off peacetime supply during future conflicts,” the report says.
One example is Dechlorane, a flame retardant used in insulation on all US missile systems. The sole source of the material is the Belgian company Occidental Chemical. Worse yet, the precursor to make Dechlorane used to come from China, but is no longer available, “so there is now no source for Dechlorane in the world.”
US fighter jets rely on Sidewinder and AMRAAM air-to-air missiles to dominate the skies, but what happens when they run out? The sole source of dimeryl diisocyanate, a key ingredient in the missiles’ propellant, has informed the Pentagon that it will be leaving the business soon, leaving the US with “no qualified source,” according to the report.
One of the biggest problems noted by the Pentagon is the lack of diversity in the industrial base. About 97 percent of the DoD funds for missile and munitions procurement goes to just two companies, Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. Almost all second- and third-tier suppliers of munitions components, 98 percent in both instances, are sole sources.
Of particular concern to the report’s authors were thermal batteries, solid rocket motors (SRM), fuzes and small turbine engines, which all rely on just one or two manufacturers.
President Donald Trump has raised the Pentagon’s funding in order to rebuild the “depleted” military and launched a crusade to revive US manufacturing, but that may not be enough.
Read more
$21 trillion lost: Largest theft in history buried under guise of US national security – Lee Camp “We may be too far down the path to resurrect an authentic munitions industrial base,” Mackenzie Eaglen of the American Enterprise Institute told Defense News, commenting on the report. “So then the question becomes: Now what?”
With the US capability to produce vital parts and materials for weapons systems and ammunition dwindling, Washington is facing the risk that “a conflict with China could rely on Chinese-made parts,” Defense News noted.
Munitions aren’t the only problem either. Maintenance has been hit just as hard by the years of “overuse and underfunding” of industrial infrastructure, according to the report. US naval shipyards, for example, have not been able to meet the maintenance needs, resulting in compounding problems.
The neglect has been so severe that “in fiscal years 2000 through 2016, inadequate facilities and equipment led to maintenance delays that contributed in part to more than 1,300 lost operational days… for aircraft carriers and 12,500 lost operational days for submarines.”
A January report by the Pentagon’s director of operations and testing noted that half of the F-35 stealth fighter fleet is not mission capable due to supply and maintenance problems. Lockheed Martin’s futuristic fighter has a lifetime cost estimated at over $1 trillion.
