The Weakness of the US Military (That the Ukraine War Has Revealed) - VisualPolitik EN

The United States has the most powerful armed forces in the world. And now if the Ukrainian war has made one thing clear, it has been the enormous superiority of US weaponry over Russian equipment.

Washington has not even had to mobilize large amounts of equipment or its most advanced weapons systems to put one of the world’s largest and supposedly most powerful armies on the ropes.

However, the war in Ukraine has also revealed another important weakness: the US military-industrial complex is in increasingly fewer hands, which may end up causing major problems. In this video we tell you all the details.

#Visualpolitik #usmilitary #military

[nerdlingeeksly]

The US government hasn't been doing a good job of making sure government officials don't buy stock in companies that are considered a conflict of interest.
Generals are investing in arms companies and about 20% of government workers are in violation of this.
This is why these monopolies exist because of a lack of enforcement by greedy people.

[matthewshields]

Pretty much every nation is rethinking their military after the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

[iamaloafofbread]

I'll tell you a real way to beat the U.S. millitary. You can't beat the U.S. externally, but politically. That is, it's only weakpoint. You have to convince the American citizens not to want the millitary to fight. Good luck doing that though, there is a complex system with the American citizens that ties with multiple factors like culture, ideas, beliefs, etc.

[ArchonLicht]

All the mergers and acquisitions are a problem not just for a military tech, but in every other sector as well. These oligopolies are forming everywhere, and they can easily drive small and medium sized businesses out of the market, and thus stop innovation and throw everything into stagnation.

[ScottLongwellR]

What does he mean by the claim that there's still no f-35 after spending $400 billion dollars. The f-35 has been operational for a while in multiple countries around the world.

[andrewlucchese]

"The Military Industrial Complex is evil"
Also: "without the Military Industrial Complex we'll be screwed against our enemies"

[brycefelperin]

In World War 2 the US Government had a similar problem in that some development of new weapons couldn't produce enough of them. So they simply told the companies to forgo most patent claims and assigned production to other companies to make the weapon system. In some cases the government paid for a new plant to be built in order to produce the weapon system. This was the case for the Bantam Jeep which became the Ford and Willey's Jeep when the War Department shifted production from the small company, Bantam, that developed the jeep to Ford and Willey's so they could produce it in better quantity.

Likewise, they built a whole new plant to build B-24 bombers and assigned Ford to manage and produce it there. So in a real war, and not peacetime production, a lot of the problem would be solved by spending huge amounts of money and by draconian decisions of the government if they need to be made.

[ycplum]

The scary thing is that the US is still in a better position production-wise than pretty much a tone else.

[Jondiceful]

I have worked for enough corporations to know that there is generally an inverse relationship between the size and competency of the organization. Profitability is not an accurate measure value. The same beaurocratic system that makes them more profitable by cutting costs is antagonistic to any innovation. They become enforcers of the status quo more that anything else. If you want an agile supply chain and competitive products, you want an army of smaller competitors.

[jonathangibilisco]

I'm surprised the video did not directly cover the issue of labor. In 2016 the average age of a factory worker in Defense for aerospace was 53. Its probably older now with a limited pool of qualified and experience labor. Having the right people for the job makes a huge difference.

[moors]

As a Boeing designer I had many designs nixed long before development. The problem internally is I am a Physicist and all the engineers always knew better than to try to really innovate anything. Small steps maybe but big leaps were a no no. Inductive reasoning was actually shot down in design because it does not take baby steps that deductive test and proposal take.

[carolynlarke]

My tiny company was bought by Northrop Grumman. It was like The Borg, we were assimilated. Some things were better, insurance and savings plans as well as a pension until 2015. Other things were downright crazy as we had to comply with all the federal rules of an arms dealer when we did no defense work. I cut us off at the knees. Now, a 125 year old American firm has ceased to exist.

[brianh]

Anti-trust laws need to be enforced and these large companies need to be broken up into smaller ones. In general there has been a failure by the federal government to pursue anti-trust cases for quite a while - mainly due to a lot of the politicians being in the pockets of said corporations.

[looseycanon]

Careful there... F150 Raptor is very cool and very useful offroader, but Lada Niva is the offroader, that drives through where anything else get's stuck and you repair it with a few zip ties and well shaped stone...

[TheGrendelmen]

Don't forget, behind all five of these giants is another giant, doing much of the subcontracting. Honeywell.

[lawsonj]

The DOJ hasn't been enforcing anti-trust laws strongly enough for decades, and that goes for all sectors of the economy. I can imagine that they're even more disinclined to enforce anti-trust in the defense sector, but they should.

[GrillerGT]

I'm kinda surprised no mention of lobbying was done...

[austin]

The biggest military mistake the US has made domestically is shutting down the Springfield Armory

[theoverunderthinker]

short sighted politicians and industry leaders?

imagine my shock!
😱

[Esoterrible]

In reference to the F-35 comment I'm kinda confused, he said the F-35 is at twice the cost estimated and still no airplane, maybe I misheard but its been in production since 2006, is currently operated by 8 countries with 860+ produced thusfar.