{"id":3012,"date":"2018-05-24T16:35:01","date_gmt":"2018-05-24T19:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nachodelatorre.com.ar\/mosconi\/?p=3012"},"modified":"2018-05-24T16:35:01","modified_gmt":"2018-05-24T19:35:01","slug":"industrial-capabilities-report-2017-eua","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fie.undef.edu.ar\/ceptm\/?p=3012","title":{"rendered":"Industrial capabilities report 2017 (EUA)"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/u>El informe anual 2017 del Departamento de Defensa de EUA, denominado \u201cINDUSTRIAL CAPABILITIES REPORT\u201d, expone las dificultades que presenta la \u201cBase Industrial\u201d de ese pa\u00eds, para sostener un nivel de producci\u00f3n y desarrollo de equipamiento e insumos, que le permitan mantener la superioridad tecnol\u00f3gica y log\u00edstica sobre sus eventuales oponentes.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\"\"WASHINGTON \u2015 The Pentagon plans to invest more than $20 billion in munitions\u00a0in its next budget. But whether the industrial base will be there to support such massive buys in the future is up in the air \u2014 at a time when\u00a0America is expending munitions\u00a0at increasingly intense rates.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

The annual Industrial Capabilities report, put out by the Pentagon\u2019s Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy, has concluded that the industrial base of the munitions sector is particularly strained, something the report blames on the start-and-stop nature of munitions procurement over the last 20 years, as well as the lack of new designs being internally developed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Some suppliers have dropped out entirely, leaving no option for replacing vital materials. Other key suppliers are foreign-owned, with no indigenous capability to produce vital parts and materials \u2015 setting up the risk that a conflict with China could rely on Chinese-made parts.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

And the military\u2019s desire to tinker with existing designs rather than\u00a0create band-new weaponshas left the industrial base with a lack of design experience, which means \u201cdesign skills for critical components within the missile sector industrial base are at risk,\u201d the authors write.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

All this is happening as the U.S. is expending munitions at a rapid rate.\u00a0For instance, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction concluded that 1,186 munitions were dropped in that country during the first quarter of 2018 \u2015 the highest number recorded for the first three months of the year since tracking began in 2013; that number is also more than two and a half times the amount dropped in the first quarter of 2017.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Mackenzie Eaglen, a defense expert with the American Enterprise Institute, said figures in the report line up with worries from senior military leaders over the last two years.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

\u201cThis report puts a bunch of solid facts and figures, and real companies and impact, behind the anecdotal concerns of leadership,\u201d Eaglen said, who added that the overall facts show \u201cmunitions production is then at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n

Parts and pieces<\/b><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

An overall issue identified by the report is a lack of diversity in the industrial base, as well as a lack of knowledge on how to develop new systems.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

\u201cThe loss of this design and production capability could result in costly delays, unanticipated expense, and a significant impact to many current and future missile programs, damaging the readiness of the Department [of Defense] and negatively impacting a foundational national defense priority by placing the ballistic missile production capability at risk,\u201d according to the report.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

While there are a pair of new projects underway \u2015 the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile and the Joint Air to Ground Missile \u2015 neither is truly a new design as much as it is modernization for existing capabilities. Neither program features \u201csignificant design work,\u201d the authors note, adding that the DoD \u201cremains concerned that the design engineering capabilities needed for tactical and strategic missile systems may not be readily available in the absence of a long-term demand signal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n
\n

As to diversity in the industrial base, well \u2015 there isn\u2019t any, with the authors concluding that Raytheon and Lockheed Martin account for about 97 percent of the DoD\u2019s munitions and missile procurement funding.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

But while those two firms are doing well, there are concerns about sub-tier suppliers in the realm of \u201cthermal batteries, SRMs [solid rocket motors], fuzes, jet engines, inertial measurement units (IMUs), GPS receivers, seekers, and warheads,\u201d as well as how healthy that base will remain in the future.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Four industrial areas stand out as \u201chigh risk\u201d areas of concern:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n