The Department of War just shot the accountants and opted for speed

So fast forward five years and 50% of our war materials are produced in foreign countries?

I can't help but believe this is going to weaken our war footing because the dumbest people in the room are behind it. Thirsty Pete does not inspire confidence in the Department of War Thunder.

I mean on the surface it sounds good, but LEAN is why we had no PPE on hand during covid.

In order to have off the shelf supplies we are going have an active international arms market by definition. Is this what we want?

The lack of PPE manufacturing in the US after 2021 is a travesty that does not simplify to LEAN is why we didn't. Dismantling the pandemic response unit didn't help. Not replenishing a stockpile of masks that existed for that specific reason didn't help. A lack of tooling supply base didn't help, Straight up corruption; no bid government contracts going to friends of the administration with no. proven capability to deliver (and they didn't). By the time this was discovered, months that could have been used to build and certify actual factories had been wasted.

Worse though, is 3M and Honeywell built factories to make masks, only to get fucked on it. Factories (must grow but also) take time to build. In the 6-9 months it took for them to build those factories after the initial delay, China started allowing exports again, and those factories folded basically before we got any use out of them. I wouldn't expect 3M to build needed factories a second time we need them to save our asses.

Which 3M PPE factory folded?

Cursory searching says in 2020 they created a new production line in Wisconsin and moved it to 3M Aberdeen.[1][2]

If you look on Google street view dates for the Aberdeen factory and compare 2019 to 2023 it had a big expansion that's still there.

The other major 3M PPE factory, 3M Valley, was expanded in 2024. [3]

Edit: For the curious, Honeywell did fire their pandemic mask factory workers, closed a pandemic mask factory, and then exited the PPE business entirely. [4][5][6]

[1] https://www.startribune.com/3m-says-it-s-on-track-with-n95-p...

[2] https://www.3m.com/3M/en_US/company-us/coronavirus/us-policy...

[3] https://news.3m.com/2024-05-03-3M-expands-facility-in-Valley...

[4] https://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/news/honeywell-manufactured-...

[5] https://www.wpri.com/business-news/honeywell-smithfield-faci...

[6] https://www.honeywell.com/us/en/press/2025/05/honeywell-comp...