NYT Opinion doing an NYT opinion.
Third, the country needs larger and more flexible industrial capacity. Until recently, a single factory made all of America’s Tomahawk cruise missiles, and there is a constant shortage of Patriot missile interceptors. Congress should pass laws that help the private sector build up its manufacturing capacity. The Pentagon, for its part, needs to stop buying so many of its weapons from just five big weapons makers and start betting on dynamic tech companies that can quickly adapt.
Expand the MIC! The problem is we have too few defense contractors. And the solution to that is to subsidize more.
It’s not exactly wrong though. The consolidation of suppliers increases the influence and leverage of suppliers. More companies does not necessarily equate to more spending, though in this environment more spending seems inevitable in either case.
What this debacle in Iran has made me consider is if the US military every really had “an edge.” It seems to me that all the US military can accomplish is small highly targeted operations like going after a single person. Attempting to actually fight a war has been ineffective for 75 years: lost to Chinese and Korean peasants, lost to Vietnamese peasants, lost to Iraqi and Afghani peasants. What did anyone expect when trying to fight against a military with near-peer technology?
The problem is they got rid anybody competent for skin tone, genitals, and a desire to please dear leader. Put a drunken tv personality in charge of the military and a pants shitting, accused child rapist, convicted felon as Commander in Chief