Which one?
Thatâs a shame.
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Oh Yes!
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Crazy. I think this may be the first truly âcrowdfundedâ war. The Ukrainians have been very smart about finding ways of raising moneyâŠ
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What the hell is he gonna say to each one of them to get them to agree to immediately end it? Thatâs what I want to know.
https://mobile.twitter.com/Biz_Ukraine_Mag/status/1623262095612452868
âTRUMP IN ASIAâ â A Bad Lip Reading
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Neither do I, the figure I accurately quoted from Time magazine was âonlyâ $420 million, not half a billion as I loosely described it nor more precisely $500mil as you say. But it was only since August:
Since August, alone, Scranton and its sister-facility in nearby Wilkes-Barre have received more than $420 million in federal funding for a new building, additional equipment and improved automation that the Army hopes will boost production rates.
It isnât just a completely obsolete production line but an entire completely obsolete foundry.
There is nothing stopping anybody competent anywhere in the world from building a parallel modern production line and foundry with modern equipment while the older less efficient plant at Scranton and its sister site is running.
The management that demonstrated its incompetence by failing to do that for literally decades and the military supervision that failed to replace the management are the least plausible choice as competent people to put funds into in the hope that they can do better.
Yep. Nothing unusual about it. The entire industry is getting love. To me that is a problem.
There is a war on and the entire industry should be placed under a competent:
That includes the âhigh techâ enterprises that are continually boasting about what they will deliver in a decade or two.
The ones I am most familar with are those who have still failed to deliver better alternatives to the cheap civilian drones supplied by DJI from China.
I will write about that separately, and more constructively.
Iâll flip this around. Equipment doesnât matter much. People and experience are invaluable.
The team at that Scranton factory produce extremely high quality product, despite working with equipment that should have been replaced 20 years ago. Give that group of staff a modern plant and theyâd deliver far far faster than a greenfield plant with a brand new workforce. Transferable skills and experience are massively important.
Early in my career the company I was working for had their only large scale factory on the banks of the Brisbane River. The floods put in 2m under water. Automated robotic arms and high end industrial control systems donât deal well with weeks under muddy water.
The company took all the skilled staff and scattered them around the entire Asia Pacific region, finding and adapting any factory that could be repurposed. The problem solving requirements to meet the production needs and quality specs was a huge undertaking. It was only the depth of talent in the team that allowed us to do it. If we hadnât the right people, weâd have stocked out the Australian market and wiped out the company.
So Iâve got no problems investing in an existing team. Youâll get far far faster results bolting onto their plant than starting from nothing. If anything, Iâd be looking to borrow talent from Scranton to set up the new plants that come online.
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I donât know what to make of this. I canât see Eurofighters being donated, but the only other jet they fly is F-35 which ainât happening. Iâm guessing the UK hopes they can nudge the F-16 debate.
And nextâŠ
More likely 90% of them would be sacked. A couple may be kept on to check the machines were doing the othersâ jobs OK
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The video showed an automated robotic arm that looked like something from a horror movie being used to move billets from a furnace and industrial control systems from some era before microprocessors were developed half a century ago. These images from the Time magazine article should have resulted in them being shut down decades ago:
L8R
More importantly the management and its military supervisors should not just be sacked but also prosecuted.
Haha Iâve seen far worse! Heavy industry tends to be ugly and functional. Australia has become extraordinarily good at limping 1970s assets along, largely because the depreciation has all finished.
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South Korea does much better by not limping 1970s assets along.
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Maintenance engineers may have a different perspective but replacing their jobs with modern equipment is the way to go. Donât worry, it will break down too, but the maintenance will be more interesting work.
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Good news is it looks like Germany is refurbishing extra Gepards. These have been extremely effective against drones. Iâm not sure where these two came from or how many more are coming. Qatar has 15 on order and these might have been redirected to Ukraine.
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Really interesting read on the Finnish Russian war in 39/40 and some parallels with the current Ukraine war:
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Any soldier in possession of captured enemy equipment and auctioning it off with the claim that it has useful retrievalable data is not engaged in âcrowdfunded warâ but looting and corruption and should be punished harshly under military law.
Civilians scamming gullible foreigners should be prosecuted in the civil courts.
Very good chance that gear is of zero practical value and the trophies are being sold with military blessing. The people involved are very open about their identities and the charity is respectable.
Iâm not bidding, but if it gets a unit critical equipment I donât see a problem. Not personally comfortable with it though.
I wonder what the WW1 & 2 community support was like in comparison. I think the effort would be similar, if a different execution.
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If the scam has military blessing it will be rooted out as part of the process of suppressing corruption that is underway right now.
This is not the way military funds are raised and disbursed.
That group has fundraised nearly $800k USD for frontline units. This is creative fundraising, not corruption. Itâs of similar ethical awkwardness to selling messages on artillery shells. I can understand not being comfortable with it.
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Nearly $800K USD is what their web site says along with cute pictures especially appealing to NAFO twitterers and evidence that they have a paypal account and want people to provide credit card and banking details.
Here is where Ukraine says donations should be sent:
It is official, audited and not full of âethical awkwardnessâ bullshit.