Sailors load sonobuoys into a transport trailer. The small sensors are key for U.S. anti-submarine efforts, but production may be threatened in the coming years. (US Navy/Lt. Cmdr Alan Johnson/Released)
Defense News: US could lose a key weapon for tracking Chinese and Russian subs
WASHINGTON — A key tool in the U.S. Navy’s fight against Russian and Chinese submarines weighs eight pounds, is three feet long and it doesn’t even explode.
The sonobuoy is an expendable, waterborne sensor that has been air-dropped by the hundreds to detect enemy subs, a go-to capability for America and its allies for decades. The Pentagon wants to buy 204,000 sonobuoys in its fiscal 2020 budget request, a 50 percent spending increase over 2018.
But just as the U.S. military needs them most, this critical capability is under threat, and it’s got nothing to do with an enemy nation. Without government investment in the market, the Pentagon says it may no longer have a reliable supplier, according to officials who spoke to Defense News.
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WNU Editor: This is what happens when you depend on a single supplier.
Unbelievable... this the 101 thing in the "industrial base". America is just suicidal ! Sad, sad, sad !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteWhy is everyone stealing Uruguayan technology? Oh, that's right: because they lack the talent to make good weapons themselves and so they must steal from the MIGHTY southern hegemony of Uruguay, who would CRUSH these American, Chinese and Russian clowns in an INSTANT if it ever desired.
ReplyDeleteI remember when I worked at an arms plant in Montevideo, and it was INSANE. A US general had been invited on an exchange program, and when he got back to Virginia, he couldn't stop bleating and squawking "It wash lyke fuggen ALIEN technology!", grabbing anyone he could in the hall way and saying shit like "The wonders I haff sheeen!!!" He had to be confined to a mental ward for a year because he kept breaking down in the corer of rooms, falling to his knees, and screeching "YYYYEEEEEEERRRRRUUUUUUUUUGGGWWWWWWAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYY!!!!" He's okay now now, but he REFUSES to ever go up against Uruguayan armed might in the event of a shooting war. He said that he doesn't care if he's court-martialed, so long as he NEVER has to face that sort of technological fury and wizardry in his life. And really, can we blame him? I wouldn't want to be slaughtered in the first few minutes of a war either. FUCK that.
Really, do tell...
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