US Military News, Reports, Data, etc.

Soldier30

Senior Member
Registered Member
A swarm of drones was shown by the US Army. The US Army held mock war games at the Fort Irvine National Training Center. The exercise showed the use of a swarm of drones. About 40 drones were involved in the exercise, and their number will grow over time. Swarms of drones, in the military operations of the near future, will become the main threat on the battlefield.

 

SlothmanAllen

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If you check Wikipedia you can see that GD and HII launched 4-5 Burke’ per year at peak during early 90’s.

I wonder if they can rebuild that capacity again? I think the biggest issue is attracting workers, training and retaining them.

On top of that, they still need to be able to build Constellation class frigates in bulk once program gets underway.

If they could 3 Burke’s and 3 Constellations per year that would give them 30 surface combatants over a five year period. If they could do five of each that would give them 50.
 

Sinnavuuty

Senior Member
Registered Member
If you check Wikipedia you can see that GD and HII launched 4-5 Burke’ per year at peak during early 90’s.

I wonder if they can rebuild that capacity again? I think the biggest issue is attracting workers, training and retaining them.

On top of that, they still need to be able to build Constellation class frigates in bulk once program gets underway.

If they could 3 Burke’s and 3 Constellations per year that would give them 30 surface combatants over a five year period. If they could do five of each that would give them 50.
Some time ago I read in an article that Bath Iron Works lacked skilled workers, the shipyard itself launched technical courses to train a new workforce because many of the old employees were retiring and did not have enough skilled workers to make up for the loss.
 

Staedler

Junior Member
Registered Member
Some time ago I read in an article that Bath Iron Works lacked skilled workers, the shipyard itself launched technical courses to train a new workforce because many of the old employees were retiring and did not have enough skilled workers to make up for the loss.
This sort of thing is happening all over the US economy. Companies barely hire to begin with and when they do it's never a newly/recently graduated. Leads to huge skill shortages when the old-timers retire or leave. Completely unsurprising to hear it's happening in shipyards too.
 

Sinnavuuty

Senior Member
Registered Member
This sort of thing is happening all over the US economy. Companies barely hire to begin with and when they do it's never a newly/recently graduated. Leads to huge skill shortages when the old-timers retire or leave. Completely unsurprising to hear it's happening in shipyards too.
I heard about it. But particularly this can be mitigated with skilled work visas, even more so in the naval industry, countries with idle capacities where a large number of skilled workers are unemployed or in jobs that are not their area of expertise is a good opportunity for both the country that issues the visa and for the worker, the problem is that I don't know the feasibility of this, because that would be the responsibility of the federal government.

Take, for example, the case of South Korea:
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BIW case:
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siegecrossbow

General
Staff member
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I doubt US military shipbuilders would be allowed to bring in foreign workers and risk leaks of classified information, either to opposing nations or rival competitors in even allied nations.

They already leak it themselves though. Also, what’s the point of a top secret warship if you can’t find enough people to build it in numbers?
 

SlothmanAllen

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Sounds like the need to re-open/build four new public yards to rebuild the capacity they had in the early 90’s.

Don’t see how they can talk about growing the fleet while having less infrastructure to maintain it then they did during the Cold War?

Seems to me they are in a put up or shut up moment. Start giving realistic costs to actually grow the Navy along with the money required to maintain it, otherwise suck it up, accept a smaller role and move on with a different strategy.
 
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