"In wartime, U.S. industry could feasibly produce thousands of high- and low-end missiles per month, potentially alongside tens of thousands of long-range drones."
Is this assuming that during this war the existing supply chains remain intact?
Or do all these missiles not need chips from Taiwan, carbon fibre from Japan, and a million other smaller components from China (resistors, capacitors, wire, magnets, led diodes, CMOS sensors, etc)?
This is an important shift from a small inventory of premium weapons toward a layered strike magazine. But the decisive metric may not be unit cost or the number of missiles procured. It is the volume of sustainable operational effect that can be generated each day under contested conditions.
Affordable missiles create combat value only if target generation, mission planning, launcher availability, deconfliction, retargeting, and battle-damage assessment scale with the inventory. Otherwise, production volume may increase faster than operational throughput.
Industrial diversity should also be measured below the prime-contractor level. Multiple missile designs can still depend on common bottlenecks in propulsion, guidance, actuators, energetic materials, or microelectronics.
The real test is therefore whether the United States is building not merely affordable mass, but a resilient end-to-end architecture capable of converting that mass into repeated operational effect.
The main issue is not the design of the missiles. It's the structural for profit set up of both the western MIC and more broadly the western financialised neo-liberal economy.
Iran, Russia and China have the deep Industrial bases & supply chains necessary for mass manufacturing large quantities at very low cost. They see munitions/ weapons production as a public utility not as a way to extract big profits.
Until this structural issue is resolved the west will not be able to win the war of the factories.
Wellll…., wellll…, welllll. And yet ya’all dared to denigrate and insult and blame Ukrainians for being invaded by the genocidal Russians and successfully fighting back and innovating so well. Btw, pink is the Flamingo’s color. You’re surely not swiping that, too?
Here’s hoping Europe follows the US’ lead and knows it won’t be on the receiving end of any American largesse.
Many thanks!!
Very encouraging news!
"In wartime, U.S. industry could feasibly produce thousands of high- and low-end missiles per month, potentially alongside tens of thousands of long-range drones."
Is this assuming that during this war the existing supply chains remain intact?
Or do all these missiles not need chips from Taiwan, carbon fibre from Japan, and a million other smaller components from China (resistors, capacitors, wire, magnets, led diodes, CMOS sensors, etc)?
DATELINE KYIV - DAY 1546 : 4472
Good news. Positive developments. None too soon!
Striking the number of new players in the design/manufacturing mix.
Thank you.
V/r - IB
An American in Ukraine
(2019 - Present)
Hi Fabian, typo in your sub-head. The world is moving to fighting from tunnels. Not sure how these systems will address that.
This is an important shift from a small inventory of premium weapons toward a layered strike magazine. But the decisive metric may not be unit cost or the number of missiles procured. It is the volume of sustainable operational effect that can be generated each day under contested conditions.
Affordable missiles create combat value only if target generation, mission planning, launcher availability, deconfliction, retargeting, and battle-damage assessment scale with the inventory. Otherwise, production volume may increase faster than operational throughput.
Industrial diversity should also be measured below the prime-contractor level. Multiple missile designs can still depend on common bottlenecks in propulsion, guidance, actuators, energetic materials, or microelectronics.
The real test is therefore whether the United States is building not merely affordable mass, but a resilient end-to-end architecture capable of converting that mass into repeated operational effect.
The main issue is not the design of the missiles. It's the structural for profit set up of both the western MIC and more broadly the western financialised neo-liberal economy.
Iran, Russia and China have the deep Industrial bases & supply chains necessary for mass manufacturing large quantities at very low cost. They see munitions/ weapons production as a public utility not as a way to extract big profits.
Until this structural issue is resolved the west will not be able to win the war of the factories.
How low is low cost? No dollar figures that I could find.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidhambling/2024/10/16/andurils-bolt-m-is-the-future-for-us-forces-if-they-can-afford-it/
For example Andurils FPV drone costs around US$25,000
The russian and ukrainian ones around $500 or less.
That gives you an idea of the difference
Wellll…., wellll…, welllll. And yet ya’all dared to denigrate and insult and blame Ukrainians for being invaded by the genocidal Russians and successfully fighting back and innovating so well. Btw, pink is the Flamingo’s color. You’re surely not swiping that, too?