US Navy to Increase Submarine Production

[Josquius]

I know this is probably a non-starter, but....wouldn't it make sense for the UK to just buy a few Virginia class boats from the US, if they want some more attack subs?

Proven platform already in production where the US has paid all the development costs already....

Then that's giving jobs to the US rather than where they're really needed at home.

[Berkut]

I know this is probably a non-starter, but....wouldn't it make sense for the UK to just buy a few Virginia class boats from the US, if they want some more attack subs?

Proven platform already in production where the US has paid all the development costs already....

Then that's giving jobs to the US rather than where they're really needed at home.

Right, because the point of building multi-billion dollar weapons systems is to employ people.

Non-starter, like I said.

[Valmy]

Right, because the point of building multi-billion dollar weapons systems is to employ people.

To be fair that is what many members of Congress think.

[grumbler]

I know this is probably a non-starter, but....wouldn't it make sense for the UK to just buy a few Virginia class boats from the US, if they want some more attack subs?

Proven platform already in production where the US has paid all the development costs already....

Then that's giving jobs to the US rather than where they're really needed at home.

they could trade; let the Brits produce the light craft (1500 tons and less) that the US needs and Britain does well, and the US produces the subs that Britain needs and the US does well.

[FunkMonk]

I know this is probably a non-starter, but....wouldn't it make sense for the UK to just buy a few Virginia class boats from the US, if they want some more attack subs?

Proven platform already in production where the US has paid all the development costs already....

Then that's giving jobs to the US rather than where they're really needed at home.

they could trade; let the Brits produce the light craft (1500 tons and less) that the US needs and Britain does well, and the US produces the subs that Britain needs and the US does well.

Since when have basic economic principles done any good for anyone???

[Berkut]

I am going to vent a little idealism here.

Spending a couple of billion dollars per boat on something like a nuclear attakc submarine is a terrible, terrible idea for any nation. It is such a fucking huge waste of an incredible amount of money and resources.

It should NEVER be done unless there is some incredibly compelling reason to do so. In this case, I would argue that there is such a compelling reason.

But don't lose sight of the fact that spending resources on weapons is a black hole of fucking waste. It is terrible that we have to do so at all.

So if we are going to do it, it should be done is as efficient a manner as possible, with little or no concern for ancillary variables. If you want to create jobs, saving a couple hundred million per sub and investing that money in rational, direct job creation policies is almost certainly the smartest way to go about it - the number of jobs created as a "happy side effect" of spending billions on weapons systems is almost certainly a terrible, terrible investment from the standpoint of doing things to stimulate job growth.

[LaCroix]

a strong military often leads to economic growth via indirect effects

[Berkut]

ALl that being said, IIRC the latest and greatest Brit attack boats are supposed to be pretty damn good, right?

Maybe WE should buy some from them, instead of the other way around...

[jimmy olsen]

I am going to vent a little idealism here.

Spending a couple of billion dollars per boat on something like a nuclear attakc submarine is a terrible, terrible idea for any nation. It is such a fucking huge waste of an incredible amount of money and resources.

It should NEVER be done unless there is some incredibly compelling reason to do so. In this case, I would argue that there is such a compelling reason.

But don't lose sight of the fact that spending resources on weapons is a black hole of fucking waste. It is terrible that we have to do so at all.

How Eisenhowerian of you

https://youtu.be/aHhe8T-HmyY?t=61

[Josquius]

I know this is probably a non-starter, but....wouldn't it make sense for the UK to just buy a few Virginia class boats from the US, if they want some more attack subs?

Proven platform already in production where the US has paid all the development costs already....

Then that's giving jobs to the US rather than where they're really needed at home.

they could trade; let the Brits produce the light craft (1500 tons and less) that the US needs and Britain does well, and the US produces the subs that Britain needs and the US does well.

That sounds sensible.
The British electorate would never go for it.

[Drakken]

If so it makes me wonder how much of the effort spent on military procurement is just waste and only exists in peacetime to create jobs in bureaucracy and earn money for the contractors.

You are onto something, here.

[grumbler]

ALl that being said, IIRC the latest and greatest Brit attack boats are supposed to be pretty damn good, right?

Maybe WE should buy some from them, instead of the other way around...

Their conventional subs are quite good (except the leaky ones they fobbed off on Canada).

[Berkut]

No, I am talking about their Astute class that is only a couple years old. Supposed to be equivalent to the Virginia class, at least that is the claim. Maybe with a better sonar suite?

[grumbler]

No, I am talking about their Astute class that is only a couple years old. Supposed to be equivalent to the Virginia class, at least that is the claim. Maybe with a better sonar suite?

They are pretty much after my time.  All I know of them is that they took forever to build. 

[CountDeMoney]

I am going to vent a little idealism here.

Spending a couple of billion dollars per boat on something like a nuclear attakc submarine is a terrible, terrible idea for any nation. It is such a fucking huge waste of an incredible amount of money and resources.

It should NEVER be done unless there is some incredibly compelling reason to do so. In this case, I would argue that there is such a compelling reason.

But don't lose sight of the fact that spending resources on weapons is a black hole of fucking waste. It is terrible that we have to do so at all.

So if we are going to do it, it should be done is as efficient a manner as possible, with little or no concern for ancillary variables. If you want to create jobs, saving a couple hundred million per sub and investing that money in rational, direct job creation policies is almost certainly the smartest way to go about it - the number of jobs created as a "happy side effect" of spending billions on weapons systems is almost certainly a terrible, terrible investment from the standpoint of doing things to stimulate job growth.

LOL, that wasn't venting, that was an emergency blow.  Think you fucked up a Japanese whaler on that one, Skipper.