General Discussion

I retired awhile ago, but even then it was easy for anyone working in DoD to see that the US defense industry was consolidating and shrinking. There were fewer options for spare and repair parts. And once the big subcontracts with the prime contractor ended, the contractors didn't want to be bothered keeping anything unique to whatever equipment they made. The BRACs of the 90s eliminated a lot of DoD's ability to take up the manufacturing slack or enhance it. Adding to the problem was DoD wanting only to hold limited inventory and depend on OEMs for spares and repairs. Pentagon has really screwed the pooch when it comes to defense capacity and capability.