Could the military complex ramp up?

If the US was faced with an all-out war.... Could the US ramp up military production with the loss of our manufacturing base over the past few decades??

Could we produce 100's or 1000's of F-16's, tanks, etc...

How quickly could we re-tool?

[edit on 19-9-2005 by md1978]

Of course military production could be vastly ramped up if the US found itself in another World War type situation. Not matter how bad our manufacturing base is now its no where near as bad as it was pre WW2. We were comming out of worst and longest economic collapse in the history of the modern industrial world. Yet getting behind the war effort we were able to produce massive amounts of tanks,ships, aircraft etc...

A large war could very well stimulate masssive amounts of industrial growth and make unemployment decline rapidly.

It wouldn't happen over night it could takes years.

perhaps, but i would say we can make more al lot faster than any other country with maybe the exception of china.

Do the major autombile companies have the capabilities to produce tanks at any moment? Didn't they handle the bulk of WWII militarization in the tank and other automobile "department".? And how long do people think it would take for today's ships (carriers, battleships, submarines) to be bulit for quick militarization as compared to WWII era?

sorry the wording may be confusing....

BlueAngel

Originally posted by BlueAngel
Do the major autombile companies have the capabilities to produce tanks at any moment?

Actually yes they do The current US Main Battle tank is produced by a division of GM (General Motors )

I doubt the US could ramp up production the way we did prior to WW2 (the US was rearming at a breakneck pace before the war began, remember).

The US has transitioned from a manufacturing economy to a service economy, we don't have the kind of industrial base we did in 1940. How many cargo ships were built in the US in 1940, and how many in 2004? Heavy industry is no longer our economic strong suit - with the notable exception of aviation.

You think our industrial base is worst now then it was after the great Great Depression ? Thats what we had to work with pre WW2.

Also our military is already alot better off then it was pre WW2. We spend like 400 billion a year already.

As for number of Cargo ships produced

1939- about a 100
1940- about 200

2004- 289 "commercial vessels over 100 GT"



www.coltoncompany.com...

[edit on 19-9-2005 by ShadowXIX]

Commercial vessels over 100GT would include large fishing boats and the like.
I'm talking about large vessels, real cargo ships & the like. Hint: just like everything else, much of the worlds commercial shipping now has "made in China" stamped on it somewhere. On the page you linked, look on the chart at "Far East" vs. "Americas" - it's not a pretty picture...

And no, US heavy industry is not "worse" now, there's just much less of it, proportionally. In 1940 our economy was largely based on heavy manufacturing, in 2005 it is not.

[edit on 9/20/05 by xmotex]

Of course it can.

Just like in WW2, in the USSR, quite literally EVERY factory and warehouse was making tanks, planes, ammo. NOTHING which isn't directly war related was being produced, all of the avaliable workforce (mostly women) were either farming or making millitary equipment and ammo.

When Hitler attacked Russia, a very large portion of their millitary was wiped out, but then they started mass producing, and within 5 years they were making so much stuff, they easily overpowered Nazi Germany, and won the war on all their fronts.

In the same respect, not only factories, but every avaliable warehouse - and there are tens of thousands of them, storing pretty much everything you find in supermarkets and shops would be converted to factories making something for the millitary.

[edit on 20-9-2005 by Manincloak]