President Donald Trump on Wednesday ordered Elon Musk’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency to investigate Navy and Coast Guard shipbuilding, giving the controversial group wide leverage to tackle some of the military’s most expensive — and troubled — projects.
We do actually need a review of Navy shipbuilding, but obviously this is just to hurt the US. It’s Congress and the Navy brass that needs a review and a kick in the pants. Same deal with the F-35 and Congress buying tanks the Army doesn’t want or need.
Buying superfluous tanks is most likely to keep the production line open. If we stopped ordering them, it would have to be shut down. The people who worked the line would fuck off to find other jobs. The expertise would be lost. It would take years to restart the line from here, which is not a good strategic position if shit kicks off and we needed hundreds of vehicles yesterday.
Same reason we subsidise the shit out of agriculture and “paying people to not grow stuff” as that one line goes. Food is a critical resource from both a military and civilian perspective and it’s in our long-term interest that the industry remains solvent no matter what.