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Yeah a dozen SM-3 missiles (the Naval equivalent of THAAD) take like a year to replenish
Yeah, the production rate is absolutely laughable. For example, from 2008 to present, Lockheed Martin was able to produce 800 missiles, around 50 a year. https://armyrecognition.com/news/army-news/2023/lockheed-martin-announces-delivery-of-800th-thaad-interceptor-missile-system
Oh my god it would be so funny if someone attacked the Americans and they only had their personal guns to shoot with because all the everything went to protocols larpers.
Horrible and fucked up, but funny, because you know they wouldn't stop.
To be fair, it's not like there's been any particular impending conflict that would necessitate a massive buildup of interceptors. Then again, the talk of production is interesting because it sounds like they aren't even able to react to the increased demand.
It makes sense to not bother investing in a production line that isn't priority but the US is very quickly finding out the capacity to increase production is nonexistent, and they'll suffer for it.
I think the lack of ability to scale up production is the key problem the west has. Russia has state owned military industry that never dismantled the infrastructure it inherited from USSR. Once the war started, Russia was able to quickly put mothballed factories back into operation.
On the other hand, the private sector in the west sees doing such things as a huge waste that gets in the way of profit. Not only that, but they're also leery investing into building out the necessary infrastructure since they realize the war will end eventually and then there's going to be little use for it. In fact, shortages play to their advantage as they're able to jack up the prices for whatever they do produce.