4 Comments
Jul 9Liked by Building Our Future

Good illustration and really cool piece of writing. What is missing is more on the economic hellscape China will create for the Taiwan, and frankly the US. Furthermore, there will be action within our own borders to delay response of forces and create political problems and to create domestic problems with the goal of forcing us into submission. Not to be a downer, but all the good ideas you list here must be done during an contentious election year and amidst a Congress that borders on unhelpful when it comes to fiscal stability. This will require Churchillian-levels of leadership in Washington. IDK man. Great points!!!

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author

Great point on the context of the US political cycle. It does seem to be a topic that (so far) has garnered strong bipartisan support. How long will that hold? No clue!

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Jul 9·edited Jul 9Liked by Building Our Future

Expanding the industrial base, undoing the horrible policy effects of "The Last Supper" would be a very good initiative for this urgent / emergent conflict. For example, creating 2nd sources of our long range munitions is critical - what we did often back in the 60's thru 80's, but abandoned in the 90's and beyond. The "startups" can have some role in this, but expanding energetics R&D and production beyond the traditional primes to other traditional primes will be necessary to get to scale on LRASSM, SM-6, SM-3, Tomahawk, etc., and for the new longer range CPS.

And for goodness sake, we need to revoke/modify the Jones Act and allow Korean and European ship yards to actively compete on the same level as our US ship yards, if we ever hope to get to scale in the much-maligned-but-still-critical conventional combat force ships (DDGs, Cruisers, Amphibs, large/very large autonomous surface warfare vessels); as well as commit to the $$ for sailors to crew and readiness $$ to maintain them - and as forward deployed as possible. Congress is a huge obstacle to these necessary industrial base and deployment postures. Platform capacity will also be necessary to protect our NATO/European flank, as Russia-Putin is sure to create mischief if/when China attempts "reunification" with Taiwan.

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Great points! Nothing happens in a vacuum—and Russia-China have clearly established a modern axis. Action against one end will almost certainly create reaction at the other end.

I wonder if Hanwha’s acquisition of the Philly Shipyard will provide a sufficient impetus for reconsideration of the Jones Act (probably not), as what’s the difference between a Korean company building a US ship in a US-based shipyard and building a US ship in a Korea-based shipyard?

Yes, startups cannot do the work alone. Industry including startups, established primes, in-betweeners, PEs, VCs, and more all have a role to play if we’re to be successful!

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