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US only has 25% of all Patriot missile interceptors needed for Pentagon’s military plans (www.theguardian.com)

submitted 4 days ago by geneva_convenience@lemmy.ml to c/usa@lemmy.ml

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The United States only has about 25% of the Patriot missile interceptors it needs for all of the Pentagon’s military plans after burning through stockpiles in the Middle East in recent months, an alarming depletion that led to the Trump administration freezing the latest transfer of munitions to Ukraine.

The stockpile of the Patriot missiles has fallen so low that it raised concern inside the Pentagon that it could jeopardize potential US military operations, and deputy defense secretary, Stephen Feinberg, authorized the transfer to be halted while they reviewed where weapons were being sent.

Donald Trump appeared to reverse at least part of that decision on Monday when he told reporters in advance of a dinner at the White House with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu that he would “send some more weapons” to Ukraine, although he did not disclose whether that would include Patriot systems.

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[–] wetbeardhairs@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Raytheon goes brrr

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 5 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Raytheon stock goes brrr, Raytheon output not so much.

[–] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 1 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

Do you ever feel like this is disinformation?

I know private capitalism is inefficient with these things but also hard for me to believe that the US being as fucking bloodthirsty as it is ever gets to the point where it couldn't wage a couple wars at a time if it wanted. And, obviously, this would be a justification for more arms stockpiling.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I really don't. The purpose of the US military industrial complex is to soak up as much tax money as possible and put it back in the hands of the oligarchs. Stockpiling arms goes directly against this principle because it requires maintaining factories, and weapons stores, curating supply chains, hiring many workers, and so on. All of that translates into costs. A much better approach is to create projects like F35 which are built in artisanal batches over many years, and require expensive maintenance contracts for function. You can suck up billions for each toy you deliver, and you don't have to ramp up large scale production.

Other statistic indirectly show just how pitiful the industrial base in the US really is. For example, only 192,474 of American students pursue engineering degrees our of 3 million total degrees, a mere 6.4%. Not only that, but only 37% of students begin an engineering career after completing an engineering degree. The number of engineers acts as a proxy for technicians, skilled workers, and a general industrial capacity.

The lack of engineering talent is the reason Raytheon had to get retirees back to restart missile production.

[–] anarchoilluminati@hexbear.net 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Funny thinking about some retired Raytheon engineer being approached to continue making weapons like fucking Galen Erso. "I'm too old for this shit."

Yeah, that makes sense though. Amazing the US hasn't been dethroned already.

[–] yogthos@lemmy.ml 4 points 3 days ago

I think a lot of it comes down to the historical advantages the US enjoyed since the end of WW2. A deep dive into the whole thing https://dialecticaldispatches.substack.com/p/the-stress-test-liberalism-never