Good Discussion. Happy to hear that there are parties inside Congress that have some understanding of the need for speed to put ships in the water & that perfect shouldn't be the goal over quantity. Foreign acquisitions, sounds like somebody has been reading yours & other blogs. So good to hear Congress can read. Hope we see results soon.
Says all the right things. Will follow his career with interest and judge based on actions.
He glorifies the private sector as the solution for our shipbuilding ills, but it wasn't the private sector that resulted in the U.S. outbuilding its opponents in WWI and WWII. It was heavy, sustained, and directed government investment.
The Emergency Shipbuilding Program was a government effort, initially inspired by the British that eventually produced 6000 ships for the war effort. They contracted with many private shipyards to actually do the work. It was pretty much a standing start effort since there had not been much ship building for about 20 years and a lot of shipyards had to be built from scratch. Some design work had been done to replace British ships lost in the Battle of the Atlantic prior to US entry. The effort was plagued by manpower and material shortages given everything else that was going on but delivered. Going to take a major ramp up in manufacturing to replicate that today. One key is that Liberty Ships were deliberately designed with an obsolescent but widely available engine. The best is the enemy of the good enough.
As much as I loathe expanding government in any form, we need both shipbuilding subsidies for private yards (like our foreign competitors) and government-owned shipyards. One of the great atrocities of the post-Cold War error was the dismantling of decades of carefully-built yards and equipment and sold for a song (thanks Clintons).
Now we have little to none for shipbuilding and repair and many of these former industrial areas had the "icky" shipyard replaced with bougie condos for childless singles and their dogs, which take the place of the children they should've had.
Good Discussion. Happy to hear that there are parties inside Congress that have some understanding of the need for speed to put ships in the water & that perfect shouldn't be the goal over quantity. Foreign acquisitions, sounds like somebody has been reading yours & other blogs. So good to hear Congress can read. Hope we see results soon.
Says all the right things. Will follow his career with interest and judge based on actions.
He glorifies the private sector as the solution for our shipbuilding ills, but it wasn't the private sector that resulted in the U.S. outbuilding its opponents in WWI and WWII. It was heavy, sustained, and directed government investment.
Believe Kaiser Shipyards was a private entity.
The Emergency Shipbuilding Program was a government effort, initially inspired by the British that eventually produced 6000 ships for the war effort. They contracted with many private shipyards to actually do the work. It was pretty much a standing start effort since there had not been much ship building for about 20 years and a lot of shipyards had to be built from scratch. Some design work had been done to replace British ships lost in the Battle of the Atlantic prior to US entry. The effort was plagued by manpower and material shortages given everything else that was going on but delivered. Going to take a major ramp up in manufacturing to replicate that today. One key is that Liberty Ships were deliberately designed with an obsolescent but widely available engine. The best is the enemy of the good enough.
Perhaps, Nic, you mean that “it wasn’t the private sector ALONE …”
As much as I loathe expanding government in any form, we need both shipbuilding subsidies for private yards (like our foreign competitors) and government-owned shipyards. One of the great atrocities of the post-Cold War error was the dismantling of decades of carefully-built yards and equipment and sold for a song (thanks Clintons).
Now we have little to none for shipbuilding and repair and many of these former industrial areas had the "icky" shipyard replaced with bougie condos for childless singles and their dogs, which take the place of the children they should've had.