Ep5.2: WTH Is Wrong With Our Military?

The main reason we’re talking about manufacturing is military. In conflict simulations against China, we’re toast each time. (Watch the full clip of what Palmer Luckey, founder of military contractor Anduril has to say.)

That's because war is transitioning to cheap, high volume weapons, while our Military Industrial Complex milks fat contracts for big, expensive planes and missiles from the Cold War era. The F-35 alone cost us $2T to develop but might never fly in combat. It’s got all the efficiency of California building a high speed rail to Mars.

These two paragraphs from The New York Times are damning:

Consider the bill: Two aircraft carrier strike groups, each of which costs about $6.5 million per day to operate, are now parked off Yemen’s coast. Radar-evading B-2 bombers, which were designed to blitz the Soviet Union and cost about $90,000 per flight hour, have conducted airstrikes. In the first month of the operation, those bombers, along with dozens of fighter jets and drones, have dropped more than $250 million worth of munitions. The Navy is firing antimissile interceptors, which can cost some $2 million, to blast Houthi drones and missiles, which can cost just a few thousand dollars apiece. The tally for a military operation in Yemen, the Middle East’s poorest nation, is now expected to reach $2 billion in May, congressional aides say.

One of the deadliest attacks of the campaign came last week, when the United States bombed an oil terminal and killed at least 74 people, according to the Houthis. The next day, the Houthis shot down a $30 million MQ-9 Reaper drone and yet another on Tuesday night — the fifth and sixth since the mission began in March. The bombing raids, called Operation Rough Rider, show the United States has yet to establish air dominance above the country, despite hundreds of airstrikes that put pilots at risk as they routinely conduct attacks against Houthi militia forces.

The POOREST NATION in the Middle East is impoverishing us. Can you imagine what China could do? No wonder Trump was in a hurry to strike a deal with the Houthis, sans Israel. The price tag and embarrassment were palpable.