Keep the C-17 alive, keep the Saturn V alive, keep the F-15 alive, keep the CVN alive, keep this alive, keep that alive, meaning buy more so your vendor doesn't junk the dies and fire everybody. Oops, A-10 is dead, F-14 is dead, this one's dead, that one's dead.
Screw that! I think part of government procurement contracts ought to encompass preservation of the production facilities. Not the building, mind you, but the tooling, the blueprints, the techniques and skills.
You all remember how the Russians moved whole industries east of the Urals in WWII to keep them from the Germans. If those lumps could do that in 1941, why can't we pick up everything you need to make new Warthogs or Tomcats and store it at AMARC until someone finally declares it worthless?
The cost should be pretty much negligible IMV, compared to the entire scope of the contract. The most perishable thing would be worker skills - you would have to make videos and CBTs or something like that, or use motion capture to record workers' movements - but this seems to be chiefly used as an excuse to make the US buy new stuff.
There might be some tie-in with new technologies, e.g. engine programs, to spend a little money designing in compatibility with these mothball platforms (i.e. the new TF40 and successors should spend a few hundred grand in R&D to ensure they can be plugged into the A-10).
In fact, engines seem to be one thing that need mothballing. E.g., the B-52, KC-135 are hard to re-engine now. Of course I would rather replace 'em with the newer commercial plants but the option should exist.
Why not? Too easy? Too simplistic? Running out of room at AMARC? I wouldn't expect manufacturers to propose this, of course; like I said, they would rather design and make and sell new stuff. That's not my problem.
For just one example: The A-4 Skyhawk can do any combat mission existing in Iraq or Afghanistan. It is the bunk to use SH to truck bombs, F-15 to do gun runs. And we are told these precious airframes are wearing out, etc.
Turn on the juice in the A-4 Room (or ship the boxcars full of tooling back out to Long Beach) and crank out another dozen, then pack it back in the cosmoline and put it back to sleep. Since you spent a little extra to keep the program fresh, it has new engines, new avionics; can drop PGMs, fire AIM-9X, use Link 16, LANTIRN, etc.
As stuff recedes farther into the past (e.g. AD-1 Skyraider) you can decide to keep it on hand, in the flesh, or archive all the tooling to files which will let you recreate the physical plant needed to make the a/c. That will keep as long as you run backups and maintain your SAN storage properly. |
