To deter a potential conflict with China, the United States must act quickly to resolve key challenges in its industrial base.
  • happybadger [he/him]
    ·
    9 months ago

    During the first COVID supply crisis after China shut down, I remember:

    1. A door factory shutting down because they couldn't domestically source the parts for doors

    2. Freight truck factories shutting down production because they couldn't domestically source some small metal part

    3. Every utilities company facing critical shortages for repairs and maintenance, warning they were one natural disaster away from the electrical grid collapsing

    • SacredExcrement [any, comrade/them]
      ·
      9 months ago

      Every utilities company facing critical shortages for repairs and maintenance

      Still an issue, I work for a utility and lead times for things like high voltage transformers are still ~18 months or so from what I've been told

      Coincidentally, I also processed a shipment of smaller transformers that came thru from South Korea (which for us was unheard of)

      It's not ideal

      • bazingabrain
        ·
        9 months ago

        so what youre telling me is that if a group of organized people wanted, they could take out the entire us electrical grid by blowing up a bunch of transformers?

        HUH

        • emizeko [they/them]
          ·
          9 months ago

          Attack on Nine Substations Could Take Down U.S. Grid (2014)

          https://spectrum.ieee.org/attack-on-nine-substations-could-take-down-us-grid

      • hotcouchguy [he/him]
        ·
        9 months ago

        Lead times on those have been that bad for at least 10 years

    • ShimmeringKoi [comrade/them]
      ·
      9 months ago

      -Ammunition becoming more scarce and expensive because guess who makes almost every primer in almost every shell some-controversy