Should the World surge Russia.

[Uncensored2008]

What is the explanation for why the American arms industry is a super expensive shit show?

Very simple - if you build a screw for the Army - the steel will cost a dollar, the amortization of the lathe will be $2, the labor will be $1. Add a 20% fee and the screw should cost $4.80

So why does the screw cost $5,000?

Well, you will need an ISO-9009 certified quality team, AS9100, NADCAP. The planning will have to be certified by the prime contractor and the Pentagon - this will take from 1 to 5 years. Once the routing and BOM are approved, a quality plan will have to be submitted. First article production will require independent AS9100 and NADCAP audits. As part of the audit, you will have to prove that every person who touched any part of the process is trained in AS9100 procedures and NADCAP. You will have to prove that each person has a unique stamp and identifies any process they touched. Further, you will have to prove that all systems and software are CMMC 2.0 compliant and properly audited.

Given the level of education required to meet these standards, no one touching the product will make less than 6 figures.

What accounts for the very low quality?

Assumes facts not in reality.

American defense manufacturing quality is second to none in the world.

 

[moon]

So, no NATO country has expanded.

Containing the Soviet, and now Russian threat is far from a "bad" idea - it is vital.

The pro-Russian ' Ukrainians ' of the Donbas and Crimea are breakaway states that requested Russian aid. They were, after all, attacked by Ukrainian neo-Nazis for eight years after the US-led 2014 coup.
That represents an attempt at NATO expansion.

As I said, borders need not change for NATO to expand. NATO is an aggressive ideology posing as a defensive ideology. It's an ideology that leads to war- as you can see.

 

[Uncensored2008]

The pro-Russian ' Ukrainians ' of the Donbas and Crimea are breakaway states that requested Russian aid.

Bullshit.

Putin has been doing what Mexico is doing to America, flooding areas with foreign nationals and then demanding the host country capitulate.

They were, after all, attacked by Ukrainian neo-Nazis for eight years after the US-led 2014 coup.
That represents an attempt at NATO expansion.

ROFL

Obvious Russian troll is obvious.

As I said, borders need not change for NATO to expand. NATO is an aggressive ideology posing as a defensive ideology. It's an ideology that leads to war- as you can see.

You Russians calling the West "aggressive" is amusing, in it's audacity.

 

[Scott]

The pro-Russian ' Ukrainians ' of the Donbas and Crimea are breakaway states that requested Russian aid. They were, after all, attacked by Ukrainian neo-Nazis for eight years after the US-led 2014 coup.

Bullshit.

The fact that western Ukraine attacked eastern Ukraine with its army back in 2014 is well documented. Russia got involved diplomatically, leading to the Minsk and the Misnk II accords, but Ukraine and its western allies said that they only signed those to give them more time to strengthen their military capabilities. In early February, 2022, western Ukraine had begun a large scale bombardment of the Donbass region with the goal of following up with retaking it from the Donbass republics by force. This led swiftly first to Russia's recognition of the Donbass republics on February 21st and, perhaps due to the fact that the Ukrainian military continued to bombard the Donbass region, the Donbass republics request for military assistence from Russia, which it accepted, starting its military operation on February 24th. Jacques Baud, a former Swiss Intelligence Officer, chronicles the evidence for this in an article he wrote back in March 2022, and which was translated to english and published on Scheerpost in April 2022. I wrote a thread about it here, where I highlight the evidence that it was actually western Ukraine's bombardment of the Donbass region that led to Russia's military operation:

Former Swiss Intelligence Officer blows the whistle on West's Ukraine War Narrative | justplainpolitics.com

 

[moon]

Bullshit.

Putin has been doing what Mexico is doing to America, flooding areas with foreign nationals and then demanding the host country capitulate.



ROFL

Obvious Russian troll is obvious.



You Russians calling the West "aggressive" is amusing, in it's audacity.

OK- you want to trade insults, you dumb establishment drone.
The Donbas and Crimea are essentially Russian. You probably don't know that the Crimean War war was fought between the English on one hand and the Russians on the other. Ukraine ? No fucking sight of it.
Crimea was Russian until 1951 when Krushev illegally listed it as Ukrainian- without the consent of Crimeans.

You are a know-nothing megaphone for NATO, you poor conditioned sap.

 

[T. A. Gardner]

What is the explanation for why the American arms industry is a super expensive shit show? What accounts for the very low quality?

From my experience, it's a combination of things.

The military has engineers and designers that don't know their ass from their elbow. They do stupid shit in parts design because they don't know any better. Seen that repeatedly. The US Army for example wanted more cables for SINGARS--don't ask, but it was a major program. The spec for the soldering of the backshell to the braded tubing that protected the wiring and formed the EM shield called for a 10% silver solder. The engineers and purchasing people were shocked at the price. Why? Because the solder sold only as an expensive precious metal and was completely unnecessary. Lead free solder as used in plumbing worked fine...

Or, on the ADU 801E Slam ER adapter bracket, the engineers wanted the manufacturer (me) to use a PRC two-part urethane rubber compound. The process would have taken about 6 to 8 hours to do and the cost for the entire production run would have been close to half-a-million dollars. I redesigned the part to use a buna batch raw rubber that was superior and the whole process took all of 10 minutes reducing the cost to less than $10,000.

Seen quotes from big companies like GE where they quote some job as "$1 million plus costs." That is, whatever it costs and they make $1 million dollars regardless.

Then there's buying. Government buyers aren't experts in the materials they buy, they're clerks. So, they often buy the low bid even if its crap. Or they buy stuff that is substandard. Seen that too. Got a lot or welding wire from GSA made in Korea. Absolute crap even though it was supposed to meet both AWS and mil-specs. Sputtered and smoked horribly. Totally useless. Had to dump the whole lot in the garbage and buy more.

I can go on, but you get the point.

 

[Scott]

Bullshit.

OK- you want to trade insults, you dumb establishment drone.
The Donbas and Crimea are essentially Russian. You probably don't know that the Crimean War war was fought between the English on one hand and the Russians on the other. Ukraine ? No fucking sight of it.
Crimea was Russian until 1951 when Krushev illegally listed it as Ukrainian- without the consent of Crimeans.

Agreed on Crimea. Donbas is a bit more complicated. Unlike Crimea, they were never officially part of Russia, but for a while now, they've had close ties to Russia, both in terms of ethnicity and language. The U.S.'s aiding of what amounted to a coup of former Ukrainian President Yanukovych in favour of a new Ukrainian government with neo Nazi ties changed the political landscape to the point that said new government, a government that was decidedly anti Russian, much to the detriment of regions such as Donbass. This ultimately led to the Donbass regions of Donetsk and Lugansk rebelling and installing their own governments separate from Ukraine. The new Ukrainian government didn't like this and proceeded to launch a war against the Donbass in order to try to get it back under their countrol, with the Ukrainian President of the time letting the Donbass region the type of life they could expect so long as they refused to reintigrate with Ukraine in a rather infamous speech. It's here:

Given these facts, it's hardly surprising that the Donbass regions residents voted resoundingly to join Russia in the referendums Russia had there.

 

[Hawkeye10]

From my experience, it's a combination of things.

The military has engineers and designers that don't know their ass from their elbow. They do stupid shit in parts design because they don't know any better. Seen that repeatedly. The US Army for example wanted more cables for SINGARS--don't ask, but it was a major program. The spec for the soldering of the backshell to the braded tubing that protected the wiring and formed the EM shield called for a 10% silver solder. The engineers and purchasing people were shocked at the price. Why? Because the solder sold only as an expensive precious metal and was completely unnecessary. Lead free solder as used in plumbing worked fine...

Or, on the ADU 801E Slam ER adapter bracket, the engineers wanted the manufacturer (me) to use a PRC two-part urethane rubber compound. The process would have taken about 6 to 8 hours to do and the cost for the entire production run would have been close to half-a-million dollars. I redesigned the part to use a buna batch raw rubber that was superior and the whole process took all of 10 minutes reducing the cost to less than $10,000.

Seen quotes from big companies like GE where they quote some job as "$1 million plus costs." That is, whatever it costs and they make $1 million dollars regardless.

Then there's buying. Government buyers aren't experts in the materials they buy, they're clerks. So, they often buy the low bid even if its crap. Or they buy stuff that is substandard. Seen that too. Got a lot or welding wire from GSA made in Korea. Absolute crap even though it was supposed to meet both AWS and mil-specs. Sputtered and smoked horribly. Totally useless. Had to dump the whole lot in the garbage and buy more.

I can go on, but you get the point.

We keep getting into the situation were we spend big and use the full force of the weapons industry to develop new systems, and then a few years it is announced that the program is cancelled either because the industry cant build it, or else it would be something like 10-20 times more expensive than originally expected. I can see that happening once in awhile, but it keeps happening, often with industry blaming the Pentagon for constantly changing their minds about what they want, and for wanting expensive difficult/impossible to make stuff. This is very bad.

Re cost plus contracts I saw some of how that is bad working for several contract DFAC firms.

Thank you for your insights.

 

[NiftyNiblick]

Not sure from the title what the post is about, but let Russia weave it's own surge.

 

[Hawkeye10]

A very good video. My only serious disagreement is with Col. Doug Macgregor's assessment of depleted uranium or DU for short. He thinks that it's essentially benign after its military use, and that Russia is probably only voicing concerns of the UK's sending of it to Ukraine for propaganda purposes, when the truth is the U.S. itself vowed to stop using it in 2015. There's solid evidence that they broke their word and continued using it in the war in Syria, but I believe the reason they at least paid lip service to the idea that they weren't going to use it anymore is because its toxic and even lethal effects on humans are now too well known to ignore. The Harvard International Review published a good article on DU back in September 2021. Quoting from it:

**
In the past, leaders did not pay the necessary amount of attention to the risks of depleted uranium. Documents suggest that the United States may have known about the potential consequences of depleted uranium during conflicts in which it was used. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) published a 1991 report indicating that deploying depleted uranium in the Gulf War could have caused 500,000 cancer deaths.

However, the United States still used depleted uranium in the Middle East despite the risks, deeming that its military benefits outweighed the potential civilian impact. This calculus reflects a common trend in which western countries justify human rights abuses under the guise of “national interest” or military necessity. The United States and Great Britain might have used a less toxic substance like tungsten instead of depleted uranium. Still, military leaders selected depleted uranium, perpetuating a long-history of imperialism in which western nations prioritize their own interests over the well-being of local communities.

Importantly, depleted uranium did not go unchallenged. In the 1990s, environmental activists and other groups criticized the use of depleted uranium, but the United States continued to deploy it. In 2015, the United States Department of Defense declared that it would no longer use depleted uranium, only to use it for airstrikes in Syria later that year.

But how is this possible? In light of evidence suggesting the dangers of depleted uranium, why were countries still allowed to use it? One might think that international treaties like the Chemical Weapons Convention should have prohibited its deployment. However, further investigation will reveal the opposite. Many of these treaties only ban weapons that have primarily toxic effects or are specifically intended to have toxic effects. This is not the case for depleted uranium. Militaries use depleted uranium to make or destroy armor rather than spread toxic chemicals to enemy combatants. For this reason, such treaties have not prevented countries from using depleted uranium in military operations.

However, the absence of a treaty banning depleted uranium is not the only reason that countries like the United States have been able to justify its use. We might also look to the lack of robust research on its health consequences in former conflict zones.
**

Source:
Depleted Uranium, Devastated Health: Military Operations and Environmental Injustice in the Middle East | Harvard International Review

Ritter today talks rather extensively on the DU subject:

 

[T. A. Gardner]

As for DU, there are lots of toxic things in the world. DU is really no more dangerous than lead or other heavy metals. As far as it being radioactive, you have to eat or breathe it in for it to be harmful. The Uranium itself, like lead, is more toxic than the radioactivity would be. As for its use in warfare, it is almost laughable that war should be environmentally friendly...

 

[Walt]

Are Russia's banks failing?

No, but big American banks are.

Uhm... I really do not know where to begin. You are completely wrong.

Every last Russian bank has failed to meet their Dollar obligations. Tens of millions of Russians have been told their money is gone. They have been offered pennies on the Dollar is Rubles, but even there they are facing withdrawal limits. Many more Western oriented Russians are fleeing, not just because they do not like the political repression, but because all their income from Western sources is being lost.

How did you miss this?

 

[Hawkeye10]

Recommended:

Re-Shuffling of Powers - China, Russia, U.S. around Ukraine - Tony Shaffer

 

[Walt]

Tony Shaffer

Shaffer was caught lying about 9/11, but also for what service medals he earned, and even his gas mileage to steal money from the government.

 

[Scott]

Ritter today talks rather extensively on the DU subject:

Scott Ritter is on point once again

 

[Hawkeye10]

Scott Ritter is on point once again

I have only been tracking this issue lightly over the years, but he is certainly right on a lot. I think that he and several others are right that Ukraine is sometime in the coming months going to run out of both artillery rounds and manpower, and that the Americans will have to either take the defeat or else escalate.

Do you wanna take a guess which door we will take?

 

[Scott]

I have only been tracking this issue lightly over the years, but he is certainly right on a lot. I think that he and several others are right that Ukraine is sometime in the coming months going to run out of both artillery rounds and manpower, and that the Americans will have to either take the defeat or else escalate.

Do you wanna take a guess which door we will take?

I actually think that this time the U.S. will take the loss. It seems the only way the U.S. can escalate at this point is to either have troops on the ground and/or jets in the air, and I am thinking that this is a bridge that the Biden administration will not be willing to cross.

 

[Nordberg]

The Soviet Union lost the cold war and didn't use its nukes. They lost in Afghanistan and didn't use nukes. They know they would die if they used nukes. You are an idiot.

Actually, Putin has discussed it. That gives anyone a reason to worry. Afghanistan did not lend itself to nukes.

 

[Hawkeye10]

I actually think that this time the U.S. will take the loss. It seems the only way the U.S. can escalate at this point is to either have troops on the ground and/or jets in the air, and I am thinking that this is a bridge that the Biden administration will not be willing to cross.

And then lie...like they did claiming that the great Xi-Putin three day fest in Moscow is proof that the American lead West is hammering them.

These fuckers will tell the boldest of lies, they dont give a flying fuck about either the truth or us.

 

[Scott]

Actually, Putin has discussed it. That gives anyone a reason to worry. Afghanistan did not lend itself to nukes.

Agreed. I don't think Russia ever thought that losing control in Afghanistan represented an existential threat to Russia. They see Ukraine differently.