On Mon, 16 Jun 2008 02:56:13 -0700, William Black
wrote:


"Michael Shirley" wrote in message
newsp.uctgnu05ra3qj7@schooner-blue...
On Sat, 14 Jun 2008 23:59:33 -0700, Zombywoof
wrote:


I saw some footage of one of GM's plants in China a few weeks back and
when I saw the level of automation and the high throughput, my stomach
went into a knot. It won't take much to retool for military production.

But it'll probably take a level of project management and technical
sophistication that isn't available in great quantities in China.

Today, no, but that state of affairs won't last for long.


The factories may be in China but they're designed in the West, and the
skills for designing such a factory, and the management of the processes
used, aren't available to the Chinese in any great quantity.

That's why they're making Blu Ray players and not top of the range
avionics
for export.

The technologies aren't that different.

That'll change. As it is, when Rockwell-Garmin sold em modern GPS
technology back during the Clinton Administration and Boeing did the same
with the ring laser gyro autopilot during the same time frame, that made
me sick too. It buys the Chinese time to get good at things, while
extending the usefulness of weapons that might not otherwise be up to
scratch. Both of those avionics systems went into the Qing-5, a 1958
design for a tactical nuclear strike fighter that was supposed to be able
to do what the early model F-105s could. That plane was utterly obsolete
until we upgraded their NAV/ATTACK systems for them.

I can just imagine what Obama's mob will do when they're elected.

--
"Implications leading to ramifications leading to shenanigans"-- Admiral
Elmo Zumwalt, USN.