Comments by "VisibilityFoggy" (@VisibilityFoggy) on "Why is US military shipbuilding in a crisis? Explained via the Constellation Frigate example." video.

Technically, it's the fault of every admin since the end of the Cold War.
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$$$
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@patrickhenry1249 The issue is that we have two bad political choices in the U.S. The sides have retreated to their extremes and, frankly, we get the "bad" parts of both left and right without much of the "good" from either side.
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The U.S. military should have the least to do with Erdogan's Putin puppetry as humanly possible. He's essentially an Islamist dictator in a nicer suit.
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The factual answer is the Aegis system, SPY-6 array and some other aspects of design that would make the FREMM more multirole oriented. But we've gone FAR beyond a small percentage in weight gain at this point. Swapping out Leonardo and Thales electronics with Lockheed and Raytheon electronics isn't particularly complicated.
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In fairness, the Zumwalt was largely an experimental design that incorporated a revolutionary gun system (which, sadly, did not work out) and only three were built. There was no economy of scale. The Zumwalt concept, however, will help the U.S. build superior ships in the future to replace the Burkes and Ticos. China is great at copying existing designs and even re-engineering and evolving when necessary – but evolution is not revolution. China will always be behind because you're dealing with a one-party state and a command economy that does not tolerate dissent or failure – and failure is a major part of producing future success.
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@stvdmc2011 Yes, they did. They overthrew the government and occupied a country on the other side of the planet within a matter of a few months – and held it for 20 years. Eventually, however, you can't expect "cavemen" to become modern western citizens. It was clear they had no interest in improving their own country, and neither the US nor anyone else can force people to do so. Militarily, however, it was fairly easy. For comparison, Russia couldn't take more than 20 percent of the country with which it shares a gigantic border.
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@iwantmorenews557 Try again. The railgun, known as the AGS, was completed for the Zumwalt class and worked perfectly fine. The ammunition, made by BAE Systems, was deemed to be too expensive to make the project worth its cost, considering naval artillery is something of a technology of the past. The railgun turret is being replaced with launchers for a hypersonic land attack missile that is being co-developed with the Army. Enjoy your World War II era tech, commies. ;)
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Global commerce, since ancient times, has largely worked on the idea of countries NOT banning the rest of the globe from their ports.
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Trump attempted to upgrade an existing carrier to increase our carrier fleet to 12, but the politicians shot it down in Congress (and in the Pentagon). The window has now closed on that idea even if he is re-elected.
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No, actually, unskilled workers being used on a temporary basis is a major aspect of the problem. Take away the foreign workforce that is exploited with low pay, but thrust into what SHOULD be skilled, high-paying jobs, and you force the corporations to hire Americans who demand a higher wage and will commit to learning technical skills as a genuine career.
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@neutronalchemist3241 In fairness, while Leonardo, Thales and other European manufacturers built excellent kit, USN ships have been utilizing Aegis and related battle management systems for decades, with multiple upgrades and generations of enlisted and officers who are trained on these systems. It also allows for smoothly networked warfare between ships, planes, drones, CCAs, and the ability to communicate and share data with MULTIPLE allies in a hot war. It's not that European tech firms couldn't build a similar system – it's that the US already uses a system that has been perfected and has upgrade paths already planned for the future. So on that, the USN is correct. The problem here is the physical construction of the ship and the silly bespoke mission capabilities that are being demanded from a frigate – not just swapping out modular electronic warfare systems. Australia, for example, uses much of the same electronics as the US and were able to adapt it to a British platform fairly easily. Japan adapted Aegis to their destroyers and frigates as well.
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Because it is anathema to both sides – the political right does not like organized labor and the political left does not like meritocracies. Combine the two and you have, well, this...
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Unionized labor is either good or bad, depending on the industry and context of the project at hand. It works very poorly when it comes to domestic consumer auto manufacturing– and even worse with classroom teachers and white collar bureaucrats. But it works extremely well when it comes to building a workforce that is skilled and committed to careers in industries that are tightly regulated, price-controlled via acts of Congress, require secure environments and thrive on retention. I'm not willing to overpay for a crappy Chevy crossover or for my school district to hire left-wing lunatics under the leadership of Randi Weingarten. I'm completely willing to pay a premium for a warship that will be asked to defend the free world.
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Bingo. When you fire people who have huge egos, medals pinned to their jackets and lucrative careers in front of them, you end up with all of these people sending letters to the New York Times calling you a "threat to democracy" and a dictator.
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This IS likely an issue when it comes to military recruitment, even if we do not want to admit it, but that has nothing to do with what is being discussed here. Shipbuilders do not care who will be bombed or boarded by the vessels they are constructing.
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Xi's bots are drunk today...
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@huggybear441 As long as I can freely elect my national leaders, I have no need to cry. Enjoy your dystopian dictatorship run by a man who can't personally handle Winnie the Pooh cartoons. How are you accessing YouTube anyway, considering your government blocks the site? Do you need a VPN to get around the government firewall? Naughty, naughty! Watch your social credit score. ;)
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Funny, that's exactly what the British and Japanese are doing – and they're doing it well.
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@cborecky Really? I see them all over the place where I live (Miami suburbs). I think they're ugly as sin, but tons of people are buying them.
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Oh, South Korea could teach America PLENTY – but you already know the answer. Politicians will not listen unless it gets them re-elected, lines their pockets, or both.
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@Samuel-hd3cp The problem is that Europe funded its social perks because the big, bad USA was around to take the pressure off their military spending. If the US spent less on defense, that socialized medicine would go away very quickly in a lot of European nations.
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The USAF's Sentinel ICBM and NGAD programs are just as bad. The Army actually seems to be getting things right with their adaptation of the SM-6 and Typhon.
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It may prevent us from going to war, but the problem comes in that it may not prevent another country from going to war with us. The enemy gets a say in these decisions.
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We share an enemy in China, but India is a little too close to Russia at this point.
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Johnson was a Fighter Mafia guy. He didn't like the "hassle" of building planes that could take off from carriers, perform fleet defense, and strike land targets all in one package. The Navy isn't the Air Force, which is hard for a lot of people who came from that culture to understand. I love the F-15, for example, but there's a good reason it was "navalized." The Russians navalized the Flanker and it's been a headache across multiple navies. There really hadn't been a great navalized air superiority fighter (that can also serve a multi-role purpose) for many years until Dassault created the Rafale-M.
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@Bk6346 There's a ton of shipbuilding in Europe, where wages and the cost of living is equivalent (and sometimes higher) than the U.S. It's not an issue of "Asians work harder for lower pay." That's ridiculous.
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It's weird. If I were Chinese, I would be proud of my country's progress, but angry that I must live under the control of a dictatorship. It seems the Chinese people are the ones who have "given up" and simply acquiesced to being controlled by un-elected leaders who belch out orders under the threat of imprisonment. That's no way to live.
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