The problem is the procurement for many of these munitions.
We haven’t been in an active hot shooting war in some time. So things like interceptors we order a couple dozen a year at most just to keep the pipeline active and our allies restocked. The manufacturers are making them on a slow-line process- think hand machining parts, processes that don’t scale up easily.
Then we go from needing 50 a year to 500 tomorrow, another 500 next month, another 1000 the month after that, etc. The companies making them are simply not set up for bulk assembly-line production.
They can start, but it takes quite some time to set that up. Especially when the missile itself was not engineered for mass production.
It’s a similar deal with more mundane munitions like 155mm shells. Things like the propellant are only made by a tiny handful of companies as it’s a dangerous business with low product demand. So with Ukraine and other wars we suddenly want 100,000 shells per month, and we’re literally building assembly lines from scratch.
The problem is the procurement for many of these munitions.
We haven’t been in an active hot shooting war in some time. So things like interceptors we order a couple dozen a year at most just to keep the pipeline active and our allies restocked. The manufacturers are making them on a slow-line process- think hand machining parts, processes that don’t scale up easily.
Then we go from needing 50 a year to 500 tomorrow, another 500 next month, another 1000 the month after that, etc. The companies making them are simply not set up for bulk assembly-line production.
They can start, but it takes quite some time to set that up. Especially when the missile itself was not engineered for mass production.
It’s a similar deal with more mundane munitions like 155mm shells. Things like the propellant are only made by a tiny handful of companies as it’s a dangerous business with low product demand. So with Ukraine and other wars we suddenly want 100,000 shells per month, and we’re literally building assembly lines from scratch.