The Drone Canary in the M.I.C. Coal Mine

don't get depressed, get mad

Deindustrialization was decades in the making, and as we are running out of time—we don’t have decades to bring it back.

Never forget, this did not “just happen.” This was an intentional act by government, politicians, and people interested in money and the power it would bring them. Supporting them, and manipulated by them, were useful idiots and true believers from the usual suspects in the NGO, IO, and “non-profit” world.

The lust for money, power, and sex. If you don’t first look for these three reasons for the problems around you, you’re not thinking right. When two of the three are right in front of you, you know you’re on to something.

It is no exaggeration that our not-so-sudden inability to manufacture even the weapons for our own survival without the assistance of our possible enemies has a matter of national survival.

Hedge funds, the consultancy complex, and the “We Own Everything” Triumvirate of BlackRock, State Street, and Vanguard spent the entire post-NAFTA economy offshoring anything that could gain them an extra $0.000123 per share. That which it could not off-shore, it sold for pennies on the dollar so our future opponents could grow their own military-industrial-complex faster.

They were not interested in national security, if anything they were convinced every other nation was as interested in profit as they were. More often than not, they just didn’t care.

The shipyard challenge is just a small part of a larger issue. It isn’t just that we don’t have the shipbuilding and maintenance infrastructure to expand; we don’t have the trained workforce or even school programs to accelerate capacity.

To get there it takes leaders with vision and persistence who find the money to create the demand signal that will kick-start the system.

Mike Jernigan over at the National Security Journal outlines just one part of the challenge in an area that is new and sexy, which outlines well an old and unsexy failure of two generations of national leaders in the public and private sector, America’s Drone Crisis: ‘Made in America’ Is Nearly Impossible.

So, if we need more American-made drones – let’s make more drones. Yet it isn’t that simple. The United States lacks the ability to manufacture these and other items. Destin Sandlin, a former missile flight test engineer for the U. S. Army and host of the Smarter Every Day series on YouTube, explains the problem in his video “I Tried to Make Something in America.”

He tells the story of how he set out to make a gadget using only parts from and manufacturing abilities in the United States. The video follows his year-long effort to source components and specialized fabrication techniques. He visited mills, technical schools, and businesses of all sizes to learn how to make the components for his gadget.

Despite his gadget having no moving parts, Destin was unable to complete his quest as he discovered that American manufacturing capability is nearly extinct. He found we don’t have dies to make necessary tools, molds to mass produce templates, tools to assemble and construct subcomponents, nor people with the necessary knowledge and experience to manufacture products. In short, America lacks the ability to make “things” – widgets, gadgets, or products.

You can watch Sandlin’s video referenced above here:

Jernigan offers some action items:

Congress is appropriately concerned with acquisition reform. Any conversation about acquisition reform must start with restoring America’s manufacturing base. I recommend Congress do several things to address the American military’s drone shortage.

First, expand student eligibility for Pell Grants to cover training programs necessary for fabrication and manufacturing to enhance the availability of qualified workers.

Secondly, implement output capacity-based grants to incentivize to companies’ investment in technology.

Next, permanently allow full and immediate expensing for capital spending on structures.

I offer an additional recommendation for the Department of Education: ensure existing grants, scholarships, and prizes are available to encourage vocational schools to re-develop the necessary skills required in manufacturing; create and train the die makers, the machinists, the lathe and press operators, and all the fabrication skills required to get a “Made In America” stamp.

The Secretary of Defense expects training “force-on-force drone wars” in 2026. It is unlikely that the United States could win a drone war with China today with its 20 models and hundreds of copies versus the PRC’s millions. But, as the saying goes, “if the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago, then the second-best time to plant a tree is today,” then let’s improve the manufacturing base so we can plant little drone trees today.

I would offer the additional step of tort reform and regulatory reform. Those two items—rife with rent-seeking and abuse of our legal system by bad faith actors—are an expense in both capital, and worse, time. If you aren’t talking about union problems as well, then you’re not serious.

The U.S. government and industry created this problem. Our guild-like think tanks, academia, and professional problem admirers who are underwritten by many of the people and organizations who have profited from deindustrialization, have a vested interest in keeping the problem more than solving it.

The old established ways—the ways that got us here—will not work.

It is a Gordian knot. The same mechanism that fixed that problem is needed for this problem.

To undergird the mood of today’s musings, I’d ask you to watch the video below. It is … a mood. Picking the last usable scraps of what was once a world-beating national pastime of, just, making things, so you can, even a small bit, try to revive a portion of what was once a great glory.

Maine…”Vacationland” was once a powerhouse of industry. Now?

There is hope, but people are few, time is short, and we are beset with distraction. Our opponents are confident, aggressive, and smell our complacency.

More.

Faster.