Seems Biden is giving away our entire supply of Stingers and Javalins. Every week it seems he's giving billions away. What is our inventory in these supply chain wrecked times???

You do know we can make more of them. I bet production is ramping up. If anyone in Tucson needs a job, they might want to apply to Raytheon. I bet their hiring.

You can make new ones, but don’t forget the chip shortage. Also, 66% of the world’s chips come from Taiwan, which the ChiComs would love to invade and conquer.

Keep in mind that these various AT and AA missile systems have a relatively short shelf life of 10ish years, past which they begin to degrade and become less safe and reliable. This can sometimes be extended for a certain period through refurbishment programs, but even those eventually reach a point of diminished returns. It's not like small arms ammunition, which can be stockpiled basically indefinitely (in ideal storage conditions). So the military already has a rotation/replacement plan in place for these.

There are also successive generations of many of these missile systems, with older generation ones being replaced over time with newer generation upgraded ones.

So I suspect that the bulk of what is being sent to Ukraine by the US and other countries is older, earlier-gen, and soon-to-expire missiles. Still effective, just maybe not as cutting-edge, and nearing the end of their 10 year storage life.

And since these older and outdated ones were already scheduled to be replaced anyway, we're not out anything in the grand scheme.

It's not like we give away 100 missiles, and then have to scramble around to try to order and produce 100 new ones.

Rather, let's say we hypothetically have 1000 missiles in our stockpile, 10% of which are set to expire each year, with 100 new replacement missiles already in the pipeline being provided for the scheduled replacement of the expiring missiles each year. This year, the only difference is instead of destroying the 100 expiring missiles, we send these 100 old ones to Ukraine for them to use. Yet we still have the same 1000 missiles available in our stockpile.

It's not like WW2 where you could build a 100 bombers a month.

Ramping up production lines, parts procurement, finding and training qualified workers takes time. With the current supply chain issues and component obsolescence building enough new weapons promptly could be a struggle.

In the 1980's I worked in the defense build up. Qualified technicians, assemblers and engineers were everywhere. They were experienced and available.

Today we struggle to find qualified technicians. No one works with their hands anymore.

In my day hobbies included assembling Heathkit, building models and working on your car.

Today job applicants hobbies are vaping and playing video games.

3 years we hired 12 entry level people thinking we could train them and end up with a handful of mid level technicians. 1 kid lasted- not as a hardware technician but as a programmer. Unfortunately he was a foreign national and couldn't get a security clearance so we couldn't even use him.

quote:

Originally posted by braillediver:

In my day hobbies included assembling Heathkit, building models and working on your car.

Today job applicants hobbies are vaping and playing video games.

My first Heathkit project was a digital clock. I put the chip in backwards the first time, and went over that thing with a fine tooth comb till I found the problem. I was quite proud of it when I finished.

quote:

Originally posted by bkmooney:

quote:

Originally posted by braillediver:

In my day hobbies included assembling Heathkit, building models and working on your car.

Today job applicants hobbies are vaping and playing video games.

My first Heathkit project was a digital clock. I put the chip in backwards the first time, and went over that thing with a fine tooth comb till I found the problem. I was quite proud of it when I finished.

I "assembled" a Heathkit multi-band shortwave receiver when I was around 15 or 16. I say "assembled" because my brother (who worked at Heath in Benton Harbor at the time) spent several weeks of his spare time fixing my boo-boos and aligning it.

Spent many an evening surfing the frequencies when I was supposed to be sleeping. Had a long-wire antenna strung from my bedroom window to the barn. I don't recall what ever happened to it. Disappeared after I joined the Navy.

quote:

I don't recall what ever happened to it. Disappeared after I joined the Navy.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Did the same thing happen to your baseball cards??

Field testing in real world scenarios.

quote:

Originally posted by ZSMICHAEL:

quote:

I don't recall what ever happened to it. Disappeared after I joined the Navy.

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Did the same thing happen to your baseball cards??

Not something I ever got into. Pretty sure my little brother got/destroyed/lost anything I left at home.

^^^^^^^^^^^
Yeah my little brothers liberated what remaining possessions I had at the house.

Building new Stingers won't be easy.

The FIM-92 Stinger Surface-To-Air Missile May Finally Get A Replacement

The Army says the iconic Stinger design is increasingly obsolete and its existing stockpiles are dwindling.

The U.S. Army says it wants to begin developing a replacement for the venerable Stinger short-range heat-seeking surface-to-air missile and actually begin testing at least one prototype design by the end of the 2023 Fiscal Year. The goal is then to get a finalized weapon into production no later than the 2027 Fiscal Year. This comes as the service has determined its existing Stinger to be increasingly obsolete and as its stockpile of these weapons is shrinking, in part due to transfers to the Ukrainian military to support their ongoing operations against Russian forces...

Complete article:

https://www.thedrive.com/the-w...ly-get-a-replacement

More than that, these missiles were built to destroy Soviet (then Russian) tanks and aircraft. Guess what they're being used for. Any Russian tank or aircraft the Ukrainians destroy is one the Russians can't use against us if we ever mixed it up.

quote:

Originally posted by 220-9er:
Field testing in real world scenarios.

It has been in service since the '80s. There have been upgrades, but it's probably about time for a new design.

quote:

Originally posted by Sigmund:
Building new Stingers won't be easy.

The FIM-92 Stinger Surface-To-Air Missile May Finally Get A Replacement

The Army says the iconic Stinger design is increasingly obsolete and its existing stockpiles are dwindling.

The U.S. Army says it wants to begin developing a replacement for the venerable Stinger short-range heat-seeking surface-to-air missile and actually begin testing at least one prototype design by the end of the 2023 Fiscal Year. The goal is then to get a finalized weapon into production no later than the 2027 Fiscal Year. This comes as the service has determined its existing Stinger to be increasingly obsolete and as its stockpile of these weapons is shrinking, in part due to transfers to the Ukrainian military to support their ongoing operations against Russian forces...

Complete article:

https://www.thedrive.com/the-w...ly-get-a-replacement

I'm not seeing any Stinger funding in FYs 20, 21 or 22. Not even funds for mods. So no more new Stingers, unless the Army gets approved funds, a contract, facilities and qualified people to make them (years in the making). Either way, the Army doesn't want new Stingers, they want a new, improved missile.

FY23 budget requests are not yet public.

Javelin, on the other hand, has current funding.

I posted about this here last week
https://sigforum.com/eve/forum...35/m/3270077884/p/82

TL;DR
Javelin = Hot manufacturing line
Stinger = Existing stock constantly being refurbished but, no new Stingers have been made in decades. Cold, very cold manufacturing line, not to mention parts vendors likely out of business. Ukraine/Russia War rapidly draining stocks

DoD/USA/USMC asleep at the wheel regarding upgrading and making current weapons dealing with peer-threat, which was ID'd over a decade ago. Doctrine is HEAVILY reliant on US fighters to provide air cover versus an organic weapons platform for infantry.

Stingers aren't in production for the US, but for foreign customers. There are apparently some components that are no longer available. Once existing inventory of those parts has been consumed,that will be the end of stinger production. The US military will, at that point, need whatever new design is in the pipeline.