No doubt the production and procurement piece is critical, and long overdue for attention. How will we pay for it though? What will we trade away? If a production line is already at full capacity (or dormant) how much are we willing to spend in non-recurring engineering to add production-line capacity via extra shifts/workers, re-start/re-qualify a production line, or expand to a new production line? Or a 2nd source? Munitions inventories need attention, but there are no easy answers to decide which, how many, and to fund them. Is Under Secretary LaPlante prepared to go to SECDEF and DepSecDef and have them write OSD Programming Guidance or PDM, mandating increased production capacity of specific munitions? What if OSD's munition priorities are different than the Navy's NNOR? Or different than PACFLT/6F/5F priorities? LaPlante can talk about it, but he doesn't have PPBE authority to direct it. Now, if he can get SECDEF Austin to talk about it, then we're ready to start cooking-with-gas...
If you look at every ship and weapon delivery schedule the Navy has produced in the last 20 years (or maybe longer) you will find the magic of "the out-years", where every ship we will need will be online and fully trained and maintained, every magazine filled, and every depot bursting at the seams with goodness. This because all of the admirals delivering those reports to Congress know that by the time the "out-years" arrive they and the Congress-critters they are reporting to will either be retired or answering questions about a totally different topic. And no one ever gets fired. It is obvious that no one in the Potomac Flotilla has to answer to the same code of ethics demanded of our Midshipmen.
More interesting to me is watching Russia desperately scrambling for men and munitions. The rumor that the Putin is buying ammo from the NORKS if true shows the emptiness of the armory in Russia. The mosin nagant bolt action rifles and rusty AK’s arriving at the front in the hands of conscripts is unbelievable. Did he give it all away?
No doubt the production and procurement piece is critical, and long overdue for attention. How will we pay for it though? What will we trade away? If a production line is already at full capacity (or dormant) how much are we willing to spend in non-recurring engineering to add production-line capacity via extra shifts/workers, re-start/re-qualify a production line, or expand to a new production line? Or a 2nd source? Munitions inventories need attention, but there are no easy answers to decide which, how many, and to fund them. Is Under Secretary LaPlante prepared to go to SECDEF and DepSecDef and have them write OSD Programming Guidance or PDM, mandating increased production capacity of specific munitions? What if OSD's munition priorities are different than the Navy's NNOR? Or different than PACFLT/6F/5F priorities? LaPlante can talk about it, but he doesn't have PPBE authority to direct it. Now, if he can get SECDEF Austin to talk about it, then we're ready to start cooking-with-gas...
If you look at every ship and weapon delivery schedule the Navy has produced in the last 20 years (or maybe longer) you will find the magic of "the out-years", where every ship we will need will be online and fully trained and maintained, every magazine filled, and every depot bursting at the seams with goodness. This because all of the admirals delivering those reports to Congress know that by the time the "out-years" arrive they and the Congress-critters they are reporting to will either be retired or answering questions about a totally different topic. And no one ever gets fired. It is obvious that no one in the Potomac Flotilla has to answer to the same code of ethics demanded of our Midshipmen.
More interesting to me is watching Russia desperately scrambling for men and munitions. The rumor that the Putin is buying ammo from the NORKS if true shows the emptiness of the armory in Russia. The mosin nagant bolt action rifles and rusty AK’s arriving at the front in the hands of conscripts is unbelievable. Did he give it all away?
Amen