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Texas factory cost $469M using old equipment, makes zero artillery shells

23 points by ilamont

by klooney

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> A "high-risk" plan to use old machines to produce modern M795 artillery shells backfired, an Inspector General report found.
I would say that this indicates that the decision makers adequately appreciated the possibility this wouldn't work. This is generally what a high risk plan is.

by exabrial

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Typically if I don't work, I don't get paid.
Perhaps we could learn something here.

by zippyman55

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The low level employees were probably raising concerns. This stuff makes me sick.

by bell-cot

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> The Mesquite factory was commissioned with a series of expedited contracts in 2022 and 2023...
> The facility, in Mesquite, Texas, was brought online in 2024...
> [now] the facility has yet to produce a single round in two years...
Vs. WWII-era America needed less than 3 1/2 year to go from Pearl Harbor to Eisenhower commanding 61 US Army Divisions as they overran Germany. Where 40,000 tons of artillery shells might be provided for offensives so (relatively) minor that only a few military history buffs remember them today.
Why the difference? Because back then, a Mesquite-style failure would have had devastating social, financial, and probably legal consequences for the managers and companies involved.

by quantified

1 subcomments

I am glad that anyone is still looking into or complaining about amounts less than $500MM. Still, it's the usual suspects, won't make a difference, can't get blood back from a tick.

by general1465

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I can see that USA and Russia are more similar than one could expect. This kind of corruption of opening a factory and then delivering nothing or delivering overpriced garbage is so typical for Russia and one of the reasons why they struggle so much in Ukraine.