The hollowing out of U.S. manufacturing is having a fatal impact on the U.S. military industry, resulting in frequent failures of U.S. warships and fighters, and suppressing the speed of research and development of new equipment. On the surface, the rift in the United States is a rift between two parties, various interest strata, and various ideologies, but in essence it is a rift between financial capital and industrial capital. After the United States sat on the throne of hegemony, it began to embark on the road of relying on financial hegemony to plunder. Relying on financial hegemony to plunder can indeed help the United States easily obtain the world's wealth, but it is obvious that the corresponding side effects are still very large. Financial plundering has led to the hollowing out of U.S. industry and the creation of new highs for U.S. debt.
The United States has begun to see a serious hollowing out of the manufacturing industry, the most notable sign of which is the massive loss of industrial workers. China's shipbuilding has ranked first in the world for 14 consecutive years, and the core is a strong industrial chain and industrial workers. The United States no longer has enough shipbuilders because of excessive hollowing. Today, the U.S. shipbuilding industry relies only on warships for its subsistence, and its competitiveness is clearly insufficient. The shipbuilding industry is just a microcosm of the hollowing out of manufacturing in the United States, which is serious in a large number of areas. Nowadays, these hollowing out have begun to affect the US military industry, and directly lead to the frequent failure of US-made warships and fighters, and the speed of research and development of new equipment has also been suppressed.
U.S. equipment failures continue, but there are also many voices on the Internet that don't despise the U.S. The most advanced stealth fighters of the United States have suffered vicious accidents in a row, and the F-22 and F35 have crashed one after another, which has led to the US military having to choose an improved non-stealth fighter F-15 to replace it. U.S. warships have also begun to break down, and the problems of various parts and components are becoming more and more prominent. Even the USS Ford, the most proud new aircraft carrier of the US military, has begun to have frequent problems due to manufacturing processes and quality issues. The financialization of Boeing has led to a decline in its technical capabilities and quality standards, as well as a change in its corporate culture and values, which has led to frequent problems with the corresponding fighters, which are the epitome of problems with American equipment.
In the context of the increasingly hollowing out of American manufacturing and the difficulty of the military industry to support the ambitions of US military expansion, there are still many different voices. Some experts believe that American manufacturing has not been hollowed out, and the most important sign is that the United States still has its own unique advantages in the field of high-end manufacturing. Some experts believe that the United States should not be underestimated at any time, and that the United States still has a very strong manufacturing capacity. Some experts believe that the hollowing out of US manufacturing is just an illusion, and that once a war starts, the US military industry will be mobilized in a short period of time to quickly produce all kinds of weapons and equipment. So is there a hollowing out of the United States, and can the American military industry really rush up at a critical moment?
Once war breaks out, the US military will be able to produce more than 100 aircraft carriers and warships in a very short period of time, is this argument of some experts feasible? With regard to China's shipbuilding capacity, US experts lamented that China's shipbuilding capability has surprised the United States. Some American experts lamented that China's shipbuilding is unbelievably ahead of the United States!" Of course, it cannot be ruled out that similar statements by American experts are also exaggerated. However, the perception of American experts can also reflect their dissatisfaction with the current US shipbuilding capacity to a certain extent. Some American experts even say that once China carries out a full mobilization, then the speed of warship construction will be hundreds of times faster than that of the United States. Some experts who are optimistic about the United States have different understandings of the above statements.
Some US experts have pointed out that once a war breaks out, the US military will be able to produce more than 100 aircraft carriers and warships in a very short period of time. Is this feasible? The U.S. Navy is still considered the most powerful navy in the world, with the largest number of nuclear-powered aircraft carriers and large warships. The manufacturing capacity of US warships cannot be ignored, but in reality, the US military no longer has the ability to quickly produce a large number of warships. After the outbreak of World War II, the United States did produce 27 large aircraft carriers, 11 light aircraft carriers, and 117 escort aircraft carriers in a very short period of time. It can be said that in history, the United States has the ability to produce hundreds of warships in a short period of time. But times are different these days.
The civilian shipyards in the United States have basically been wiped out, and only the remaining military shipyards do not have the ability to produce in a short period of time. In the context of the financialization of the manufacturing industry, the civilian shipyards in the United States have basically all withdrawn from the stage of history, and now the rest are mainly military shipyards. Judging from the corresponding data, the shipbuilding capacity of the US military has also declined significantly. In 2021, the total tonnage of naval ships launched by the United States will be 144,300 tons, which is no longer comparable with the heyday of the US military, and the total tonnage is equivalent to an aircraft carrier and a quasi-aircraft carrier. Frank S. The construction of the USS E. Peterson took more than three years, which also shows that the US warship manufacturing capacity has declined significantly.
The U.S. shipyards, industrial workers, and manufacturing base do not have the capacity to produce hundreds of aircraft carriers and warships in a short period of time. The data shows that the United States only has two shipyards left to build destroyers, and one dock and one aircraft carrier. These three docks are responsible for the dual task of building new ships and repairing old ones, and many US warships can only go to the docks of ally countries for repairs. Although the United States can build shipyards, many large shipyards cannot be completed in a day or two, and these conditions are not in place quickly in the event of war. At present, the United States produces 60 million to 80 million tons of steel, and China currently produces 1 billion tons of steel, which is also a very real problem.
At its peak, around 1980, the United States had 19.3 million skilled industrial workers, but by 2018 there were only 12.8 million left, and by the end of 2023, there were less than 10 million industrial workers in the U.S. shipbuilding industry. Industrial industry cannot emerge through simple mobilization, and most of the industrial industry in the United States is now in military shipyards, and this single structure also determines that the United States lacks the ability to mobilize rapidly. In addition, the manufacturing base of the U.S. shipbuilding industry also has serious shortcomings, and a large number of manufacturing links need to be outsourced, many of which are outsourced to India. The quality of parts and components produced in India is substandard, which has affected the quality of US warships many times.
We cannot underestimate the ability of the United States to build ships, but we must not overestimate the United States excessively. It is absolutely undeniable that the United States still has a strong shipbuilding capability. We can't underestimate the United States, but we can't overestimate the United States, after all, the United States today is no longer the United States when its manufacturing industry was at its peak, but the United States with serious hollowing out. Although the United States has shouted the slogan of re-industrialization and tried to revive the United States' manufacturing power, these are not things that can be achieved in a single sentence. It is also unnecessary to overestimate the United States and thus undermine its own confidence.