Translated and subtitled by Eugenia
The USA has discontinued the development of Tomahawks, because they turned out to be not nearly as great as Trump described them. However, serious problems are seen not just in cruise missiles but in the entire American weapons industry.
Hello, my friends.
Today we are going to talk about the American weapons industry.
Just recently I recorded a 5-minute piece about how Russia and China are destroying the US weapons industry. They actually have already ruined it, and whoever is interested, can follow the reference in the description.
Recently Roman Romanov reminded us that the US stopped the production of Tomahawks. You can watch that, too, but I will tell this story again. What’s interesting is that the US decided to stop production of Tomahawks and their development right after they used them to attack Syria, when, according to Trump, “all rockets hit their targets”.
Once in a while, I will record videos about the US military-industrial complex (MIC) simply because it is our potential adversary. I will also talk about the US army on the basis of mostly Western sources, so that nobody can accuse us of being a Kremlin propaganda outlet.
Now I will cite Internet journal Defence-1, which discusses Tomahawks and their problems. I am quoting: “Like any weapon, Tomahawks at some point would need to be replaced, and the development of adversaries’ technology require that we don’t waste any time. The main direction in developing faster, deadlier and stealthier weapon is towards Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) and Next generation Land Attack Weapon (NGLAW). Planned to come online in 2025 and 2030, respectively, the successors to Tomahawks may be super- or hyper-sonic, more precise, flexible, and effective even in complicated electronic warfare and resistant to anti-rocket defenses. But this is on paper”, as Defence-1 writes.
“However, new sophisticated weapons for the Navy have an unpleasant habit to arrive late. That is why we should not stop purchasing Tomahawks or let the production stop. When we don’t have aim-oriented design for future purchase of weapons, it makes sense to continue financing and modernizing systems that work, until we have completely tested, integrated, and stored arsenal of new rockets, especially when we use them up faster than planned”. That’s what the American journal writes, not Kremlin propaganda.
A little adventure in Syria proved that Tomahawks are essentially scrap metal, even when the adversary uses old Soviet anti-rocket weapons. Having figured out that these weapons are useless against Russia or China, they pin their hopes on new weapons.
Now I’m going to present a few facts how this strategy of developing new weapons in the US has failed and how much money was wasted on it. The commissioning of the newest aircraft carrier “Gerald R. Ford” was delayed until 2022, according to Bloomberg – again, not Kremlin propaganda. According to the agency, the reason was the defects and failures that the sailors discovered during tests. Its cost makes it the most expensive ship in history. Bloomberg indicates that the budget of $13 billion turned out to be insufficient to get this aircraft carrier ready.
Too bad the US does not have Alexey Navalny to investigate where the state money goes.
The construction of “Gerald R. Ford” started on one of the Newport, VA, shipbuilding plant in 2009 by Huntington Ingalls Industries Inc. It is the only builder of atomic aircraft carriers in the US, a subsidiary of one of the main MIC companies Northrop-Grumman. This aircraft carrier was launched in November 2013, i.e., a long time ago. But its commissioning was delayed to 2022.
Let’s investigate why this happened. The commissioning, i.e. placing the ship in active duty, was planned for 2014. However, this did not happen because of the defects in its weapon systems, the new catapults to launch aircraft, and the air finisher, which helps planes land on the carrier. The defects were planned to be corrected by the fall of 2016, but in the summer of 2016 it was announced that the new deadline is 2017. Until the problems are solved, they would limit the combat capabilities of this carrier. This was stated by the Director of Pentagon Operational Test and Evaluation Michael Gilmore. The air finisher was fixed in 2017, but its price tag increased from promised $301 million to $961 million, or more than three-fold. Then the first successful test-landing of a Navy bomber FA-18 was performed.
After that, new defects were discovered, in the propulsion system and in the elevator, which was supposed to bring bombs and rockets up to the deck. The supplier of the propulsion system General Electric acknowledged that the tests revealed production defects. Well, there are many examples like that, but Trump still promises to build 12 aircraft carriers like “Gerald R. Ford”. He does not specify any timeline, so we don’t know when this is going to happen. It’d cost a lot of money, though. The Western media also expressed concerns about it.
That is what an American military expert said (on Russia Insider portal) Jacob Dreizin has to say. His opinion is valuable because he has work experience not only in the Pentagon, but also in the US Congress and in lobbying outfits of the US MIC. So, he has insider knowledge. He doesn’t mince words when talking about it. Here is his quote, enjoy: “As US Army veteran and long-term Beltway resident, including 4.5 years in Arlington, VA, where the concentration of defenders of Pentagon contractors is likely higher than anywhere else in the US, I think that their opinion about the US MIC is wrong (referring to what he said about the US weapons being trash as compared to the Russian ones).
Without beating around the bush, he states what many understand, that the US MIC has long been unable to produce durable effective and universal weapons. Take the assault rifle M16 (famous American assault rifle), here is what he has to say about it: “My experience with this piece of trash that it has problems in the presence of even small amounts of sand. Without air and artillery support and huge advantage in numbers on your side, you are dead meat against anyone with a pistol that works in the presence of sand”.
About tanks M1 Abrams, which is the main combat tank of the US Army. “The engine is a gas turbine, like in aircraft, except that is it used in a desert, even during sandstorms, which makes it extremely unreliable, requiring complicated service. Of course, Abrams was developed for combat in Germany, where there is no sand, but during Iraq campaign sand damaged turbine ventilators so badly, that more than a thousand of these engines, costing millions each, we had to take off and send for storage or repairs”.
He believes that the US MIC exists only because the US dollar is the world reserve currency. “When you have world reserve currency, you can afford this and many other things. The whole world is paying for your wars. But defects and inefficiency is a fact”.
He believes that the key problem is excessive complexity of design, which costs lots of money, citing as an example helicopter Comanche as an example, which is supposed to replace legendary Apache. From 1983 to 2004 this development cost the taxpayers over $10 billion. Now I am quoting again the same expert: “More than $10 billion for nothing. Not a single Comanche was ever delivered for use in any Army unit. So, where did the money go, if nothing was produced except for a few prototypes? Did they spend them on PowerPoint presentations? My brain refuses to accept that.”
“Can you imagine what Russia or China could have done for these $10 billion?”, – Dreizin is asking. Even we can’t really imagine that. We can fantasize, but I am sure we’d use such money more effectively. But we don’t have world reserve currency, so we can’t print it.
Dreizin indicates what the problem is, saying that it’s the political system in the US, which allows to lobby the interests of military contractors. “Some of the blame is on our political system, where MIC corporations buy politicians, and then get profits in the form of contracts, regardless whether these contracts make sense”. We are familiar with that problem, too, let’s be honest.
In former years when the blueprints were produced with pencil on paper, and the budgets were many times smaller, airplanes like SR-71 and Blackbird were created, but now Uncle Sam cannot make a heavy rocket engine, not to mention a good helmet for F-35. “As a technical civilization we are degenerating”, – acknowledges this expert. He reminds with bitter irony that for countless billions the US can only send its army against illiterate savages armed with coconuts.
I once more recommend watching my 5-minute video about why Russia and China are to blame for all that is happening to the US Army. Because it also contains quotes from Western sources.
The expert (Dreizin) says that when push comes to shove, the US aircraft carrier leaves Persian Gulf -“runs away” as he puts it – after discovering that Russians have cruise missiles that can fly more than 1,500 km. I think, after Putin’s presentations they will run away even faster.
The humorous element is that Jacob Dreizin mercilessly mocks US vassals. He uses the term “former Ukraine”, and makes fun of the fairy tales of one little but proud Baltic state about the Russian threat.
A great American, too bad there are few like him. Quote: “John McCain and other broken records in and outside of Pentagon keep repeating the mantra that we don’t have enough assets to repulse nonsensical Russian incursion into parasitic inconsequential Lithuania (currently led by a long-time communist) or mention some other scenario of military games of the 1990s, which somehow crept into public consciousness as a great threat to peace in the whole world”.
He believes that the US hegemony is over, and the only way is now down. Why is he the only one like that? If you know other experts like that, let me know, let’s talk about them. These people are great and have inside knowledge.
Let me give you one more example. Task&Purpoise portal named the US coast guard Littoral Combat Ship “floating rubbish pile”. It stated that this project has been running for years and cost tons of money, but the results are pathetic. “After 16 years and multi-billion expenditures, the US Navy may have finally acknowledged that its Littoral Combat Ship program looks like a miserable failure” – writes the source. Let me remind you that Pentagon planned to purchase 355 ships of this class. Now the military has doubts.
You can also watch my recent video about the Ukrainian armed forces, Ukraine Navy, and Ukrainian marines, who just recently received new berets. In that video I am telling you that now the Ukrainian marines use American inflatable boats, which were given to Ukraine because it has only one landing ship, and it is 50 years old.
Not only did the US Navy cut the number of planned Littoral Combat Ships, ordered from Lockheed-Martin and General Dynamics in 2014 out of concerns over the vessel’s performance, but the review of the US Navy in 2016-2017 as a part of Operational Testing and Evaluation of Pentagon, published in January 2018 revealed serious structural problems of programs Freedom and Independence. Three out of four produced ships are now in repair docks. A lot of problems were identified, from those with radars to limited defense against anti-ship rockets. In addition, the design is such that one hit can kill their ability to move and combat readiness as well as the ability to repair the damage. Not a single of these LCS designs can survive high-intensity combat, as the official Pentagon report says.
They don’t disclose the amount of taxpayer money spent on this project and given to Lockheed-Martin and General Dynamics. The sum is said to be comparable with that spent on yet another failed MIC project, F-35.
Why am I telling you all that? We often discuss possible military encounter between Russia and the US, or Russia, China, and the US. Many of our liberals and those who like to say that Putin lost everything say that we cannot compete with the US because our military budgets are incomparable. The US military budget is more than $900 billion per year, whereas Russian military budget is 10-times less, in fact, less than one tenth of that.
The key issue is not the amount of money, but the efficiency of its use. The US MIC has many problems, which I discuss in different videos, which we should watch again from time to time and put them all together. Then we can see the big picture, rather than bits and pieces. Last time I discussed problems in the US Air Force, and how many accidents it had. Now we talked about the Navy, helicopters, etc. All of this was based on American media and opinions of American experts, not Russian sources.
Please let me know whether you are interested in this kind of info, whether I should search for it in the future. Also, send me links to the experts: its interesting to read them and then tell you what they say.
All the best to you. Goodbye.
very interesting – one of the most interesting discussions I’ve heard. Excellent
Thank you to Eugenia for her translation and sub-titles. We are always in your debt for outstanding work.
Also, a big thank you. This makes information like this available to those of us who’s poor education did not include the Russian language. For that, I am always grateful, even if I only say it every once in awhile!
I am 81 years old, was once a military pilot and regret deeply that I don not speak or read Russian. Actually English is not my mother tongue either. My first awakening came when more Information about Russian combat aircraft became available in the early nineties.What a shock.
Excellent sitrep. Do continue. Thanks.
It is very noticeable that in this apparent build-up to a pre-American-election false flag and missile attack, that the American carriers are far, far away. The Ronald Reagan is in the Pacific around Taiwan and South China Sea. The Harry Truman left the Med where it had been bombing ISIS (supposedly) earlier in the year and has retreated to its port in Virginia.
For many years, the Americans kept carriers on a rotation in the Persian Gulf, with often another carrier in the Med. The Americans tended to mass their carriers for big attacks. IIRC, the Shock n Awe attack on Iraq had one carrier in the Persian Gulf, one in the Red Sea, and one in the eastern Med. The current deployment is very different.
Southfront keeps updates of American carrier locations in its Military Maps section.
https://maps.southfront.org/us-carrier-strike-groups-locations-map-september-10-2018/
A keeper – saved to hard drive. Thanks very much.
Never underestimate your adversary.
This is a very dangerous situation. If the US cannot win or thinks it cannot win in a conventional war then it makes it much more likely that they will go for the nuclear option. Not good for anyone.
Very good point. Did anyone thought that the US would be able to wage all these wars and possess 800+ military posts around the globe had the dollar been just like any other normal currency; not being printed like monopoly money?
The F-35, like many US defen$e program$, is a White Elephant, $1.5 Trillion – or almost the entire Russian GDP – wasted so far on something halted by a silly helmet.
The US MIC is just a fraudulent black hole.
The word you are looking for is “traitors”.
I’m not saying they secretly work for the Russians or the Chinese. But when you put your own personal interest and greed ahead of the defense needs of the nation, that’s treason.
Who says there isn’t a God? A group of people decide to build a powerful military to blackmail and conquer the world, along the way killing millions upon millions of people and inflicting suffering from physical and mental torments for many others, and their evil plans are set back because amongst the group of greedy people who come up with such a dastardly plan, there are those who’s greed is so great that it derails the plan and leaves the powerful military with weapons that don’t work.
Sounds like there is a God to me, and that perhaps he does have a sense of humor. Although I do wish God would have stepped in before the many millions and millions of people had to die and suffer. But supposedly she does have a plan.
Yes Ruslan Ostashko, we are indeed interested in this kind of info.
As I have written before, the US Military Industrial Complex is in private hands, while the Russian one is in Government hands. This means that the US gets less for more money spent, while Russia gets more for less money spent. The US military is at the mercy of private contractors, which is not wise, as basically they do as they please. Making inefficient products and drastically overcharging them is common knowledge. Also, the US has a tradition of it’s military being conned by private contractors. During the Civil War, the US Army ordered boots for it’s infantry. A contractor supplied them, after which the boots started falling apart. When the US Army complained, it was told by the contractor that it was under the impression that the boots were for the cavalry and not the infantry, and that they did not need to me too strong.
The US Defense Budget, which is probably in the region of 1.5 trillion dollars, is making it’s contribution to the collapse of US infrastructure. For example, how much do the 1.000 military bases which the US has outside America cost ? Who needs 1.000 military bases, and for what purpose ? Fighting terrorism ? I think not.
The US is following the path of ancient Rome, having an expensive military and a greedy elite. The US will end up as ancient Rome. It’s going that way.
Good sitRep.
This is all explained in Andrei Martyanov’s excellent book “Losing Military Supremacy”. Download from Amazon.
Reviewed by The Saker and highly recommended (by humble me).
Reuters
Russia says U.S. dropped phosphorus bomb over Syria, which Pentagon denies
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-airstrikes/russia-says-us-dropped-phosphorus-bombs-over-syria-which-pentagon-denies-idUSKCN1LP0MT
Israeli News Live – Steven Ben-Nun
Breaking News: US and British Forces Trapped in Idlib Syria
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmFZihj8tYY
Who is Steven Ben-Nun?
https://israelreturns.com/about-us/
So why is Putin still selling Russian oil for American dollars thus keeping the petrodollar scheme going in order to fund the American MIC for free and at essentially no cost to the Americans?
What do you call a person who aids and abets the enemy?
Right. Keep cutting the pensions of the Russian people, Mr. Putin. Pentagon can use the money you thus save.
You obviously are at the wrong forum. This kind of tripe you post about Putin aiding and abetting the enemy is fifth grade stupidity. Not even sophomoric.
Your last sentence is stupendously moronic.
We have a policy of not attacking the commenter. My remarks are totally addressed to your content.
It really deserves the trash can.
Beginner trolling doesn’t even describe it accurately enough. Amateurish.
Russia is doing several deals not using USD. The transactions with China are in yuan not dollars. Also, Russia is doing trade by barter with Iran, no dollars. Maybe such posts just drive people to get the real truth?
Russia still sells Russian oil for American dollars today. That reportedly Russians also deal in other currencies does not disprove this truth. In fact, the Russian government is *constitutionally* obligated to invest the dollar proceeds of its oil sales into US Bonds and US Treasuries only, and not into gold or anything else: http://www.pravdareport.com/russia/economics/30-12-2014/129431-usa_russia_central_bank-0/
And
http://borisanisimov.blogspot.com/2010/10/nationalization-of-ruble.html?m=1
Moreover, Russia is *forbidden* to use gold as money, as all IMF member countries are: https://zurichtimes.wordpress.com/2016/04/16/why-does-the-imf-prohibit-gold-backed-currency-for/
Larhmonter , you van be devastating, but right , I fully agree :)
stinky paper green back still buys gold, gold trumps paper, win win for Russia. As for pensions, as far as I have read, pensions are rising in Russia, as well as life expectancy, hence the need to raise the ‘age’ one can collect the pension, there other econonmic reasons, but just like us out in the colonies our retirement age was raised to 67 from 65………..and the plebs rolled over and groaned.
Capitalism is a sprawling criminal enterprise that promotes war and death for profit.
I feel that capitalism is a philosophy that justifies great evil.
When the employer is asked why he fired his employees as their Christmas Present, the employer replies “Capitalism made me do it”.
And, once you see one such example, you begin to notice many more.
When the industrialist is asked why she built a large system designed to destroy life on Earth, she will say she had to do it for the profit. In other words, “Capitalism made her do it.”
Why did the CEO of the prison corporation make a fortune by maximizing suffering to get maximum profits, “Capitalism made me do it.”
When the CEO of the hospital corporation is asks why he skimped on providing needed health care, he will answer again that it was for the profit. “Capitalism made him do it.”
Capitalism is a philosophy that gives people an excuse for doing great evil.
Exactly.
Capitalism means one thing, and one thing only: profits above all else.
It’s not the big lie they tell you in school about that nonsense about the sanctity of private property. No communist is going to claim the sharing by society entire of the piece of toilet paper you just used.
Private ownership of the means of production. This is de facto the case in communism as well: the part boss decides how ‘the means of production’ get employed. Not you nor ‘the people.’
Our societies, both here in the West and the (mythical) East are based on lies. Nowhere are the people free.
Us ”diplomacy” 2.0
https://youtu.be/zWzLaAUEO_0
The records of the relationship between President Boris Yeltsin and President Bill Clinton, declassified for public reading since July, are revolutionary, but not for the reasons the Russian and US state media, journalists and academics on both sides chose to report last week.
That Yeltsin was ingratiating, wheedling, sycophantic towards Clinton is no surprise. In desperation to survive politically in the first half of 1996 and cardiologically in the second half of that year Yeltsin begged Clinton for billions of dollars and the best American heart surgeons — this too is well-known. It was just as well-known then, and again now, that the two of them schemed for a degree of American intervention in Russian domestic politics much greater, and far more potent, than the Hillary Clinton allegations of Russian intervention in the US since 2016.
http://johnhelmer.net/the-love-that-dare-not-speak-its-name-the-secret-in-the-clinton-yeltsin-papers-which-the-kremlin-spokesman-regrets-to-see-exposed-is-the-love-of-submission/
The problem with the scenario outlined in this analysis is if America cannot defeat Russia, China or other nations using conventional weapons, you can be sure that the USA will use “unconventional” weapons, which includes not only nuclear bombs but also *biowarfare* WMDs.
Perhaps, this is why the USA has been reputedly trying to genetic material specific to Russia (as well as China and Iran) and has been building biowarfare labs in countries close to Russia.
Francis Boyle, an international law authority at the University of Illinois, Champaign, says pursuant to national strategy directives adopted by Bush in 2002, the Pentagon “is now gearing up to fight and ‘win’ biological warfare without prior public knowledge and review.” Boyle said the Pentagon’s Chemical and Biological Defense Program was revised in 2003 to endorse “first-use” strike in war. Boyle said the program includes Red Teaming, which he described as “plotting, planning, and scheming how to use biowarfare.”
U.S. Corporations Keeping Biowarfare Work Secret
https://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-corporations-keeping-biowarfare-work-secret/6131
The Pentagon’s alarming project: Avian Flu Biowar Vaccine
https://www.globalresearch.ca/the-pentagon-s-alarming-project-avian-flu-biowar-vaccine/9833
http://www.globalresearch.ca/ebola-genetically-modified-organism-developed-in-us-biowarfare-laboratories-in-africa/5409003
‘Weaponizing viruses’? US Air Force places ad for bio samples from Russians
https://www.rt.com/usa/397883-us-airforce-russian-rna-sample-tender/
Good overview,thank you.
You also hit the proverbial nail on the head as they say.
As long as US dollar is world reserve currency they will project militarily and any other way all over the world.
You take that away,and suddenly there is chirping of birds again.
Why the whole world keeps paying for this is beyond me.
Stokholm syndrome maybe,i mean look at Sweeden.
Or is this all planned so that only solution is NWO.
Very much to the bone. but it has always been so. Back in the early 189 tieas I I saw these guys lns on our shores with coca – cola vendor machines nearly in the front line. Their horrible grub (we were invited to eat along when possible) their envy of our (then) first class leather military marching boots, when fitted properly could make you walk 80 kilometers a day.
Their sloppy performance at the shooting range, far below an average Danish trooper. /armed with .308 Nato standard at the time. (M – 75)
I got a good mil. Education (Captain) and my lads did also, the “boys” I had were good soldiers on a budget. and we regularly beat the Americans, no sweat.
But since 1989 I never saw Russia as an enemy. Never and not today..
I know who the enemy is.
Why Don’t American Weapons Work? Well, Who Builds Them?
Decades ago I worked at Lockheed Missiles and Space Corporation (LMSC) in Sunnyvale, CA. Everything they built was for the US Government. The place looked and felt like a government agency. No hurry, no sweat. I met a guy who said he had been there for six months and no one had yet given him any work to do. If a government contract specified that six aeronautical engineers had to work on the project, six such engineers would be recruited and assigned, whether needed or not.
Still to come was the dire pressure to get every different flavor of human kind (except white males) not only into the rank and file, but as high up into management as possible.
I have seen many examples of people promoted into management, not because they were capable managers, but simply because they had tenanted a grunt level slot in the organization for years already. Even if they were poor at management, this practice at least assured that such people knew the department inside and out, and knew how things were supposed to run.
When we come to Affirmative Action – well first there was all that schooling that was passed by, with schools eager to graduate and terrified to fail any minority student. So the expected minimal level of general knowledge is missing. Then our scholar passes into the corporate ranks, where the presence of a particular flavor of dispossessed minority would swell the statistics. And remember that defense contractors are subject to all the government mandates and statistical score keeping.
But grunt level is too low. The real pressure is to show minorities in management and department heads. So these employees spend very little time at any job level. If they are not complete zeros they will quickly be promoted up the hierarchy. But here the old process of promotion breaks down. Since they haven’t spent much time in the trenches (and while there were never challenged to accomplish much), they do not know how the department is supposed to work, and lack the organizational memory of what works and what doesn’t.
Now we must add women in general. Remember that we are discussing defense contractors, and note that women during schooling generally avoid STEM courses (science, technology, engineering, and math), so it is really hard to meet quotas. And competence be damned. What we need are people of the right identities. And let’s not forget gender bent transsexuals.
What do you do when you don’t have creative and analytical problem solving skills? Easy: you substitute procedures. Ever wonder where ISO certification and five nines quality came from? Procedures, methodologies, and statistics; and troglodytes with IQs below 80 trying to follow them.
What about white males? There is generally one pathway: to be the doer for a minority manager who is smart enough to realize that a doer is needed. A little symbiotic relationship can evolve. But there is no incentive for the white male to deliver excellence, since the manager will receive all the credit. So you do enough to keep your manager and his manager happy, and as for the rest, well tonight is bowling night. Want to leave a little early.
So America’s armamentarium is created by incompetent and demotivated workers. This is because a certain fantasy narrative is more real to the manufacturers than any thought of national need. Those weapon systems may not work, but the statistical targets are gloriously met.
Yikes! This explains a great deal. Thanks much.
why is no one on the Climate Change program attacking war ? The pollution from the Tomahawks is worse that any produced in China – its all controlled opposition I think – so sad that even conservationists fall for it.
“why is no one on the Climate Change program attacking war ?”
Because both have the same objectives: destruction of the bulk of industrial civilization, and radical reduction of global population. The global elites hope to achieve a total world population of around 500 million serfs, mostly at medieval level of tech, with just a very few high-tech centers serving only the elites. Allowing them to rule absolutely, forever.
The Americans are capable of fighting against themselves.
Nice rant.
After the break up of the USSR, the israelis, and their western fascist/nazi assets/allies/colonials, figured they were the undisputed masters from then on. Their gay “end of history” nonsense.
While the israeloamericans pork barreled their through massive military related corporate welfare projects, the Russians quietly made a comeback, rendering israel’s enforcers unprepared.
Throwing money away on corrupt schemes is an american tradition, dating back before the creation of the american slavocracy in the 18th century.