U.S.-Japan Patriot missile production plan hits Boeing component roadblock

Where's made in Japan product? So Japan just keep pouring dollar?

Unsure if Trump will continue funding Ukraine if he becomes POTUS.

Sad how all weapons are designed to kill members of our own species.

Imagine all this knowhow used to lift people out of poverty and hunger.

God, where are you ?

It should have been an all hands on deck moment in 2022. CEOs across the OECD should have received calls with their marching orders...

Both Sullivan and Blinken were warned about US supply chain vs Russia's (and Russia's friends). They believed their own bovine droppings.

Australia is years away from getting AUKUS Tomahawk, again supply chain...

Japan, Taiwan....think about it, DIY, no matter the cost. Store bought, off the shelf is no longer feasible...

Sh1mon M4sadaToday 07:07 am JST

Japan, Taiwan....think about it, DIY, no matter the cost. Store bought, off the shelf is no longer feasible...

Domestic production is only possible for Japan if it doubles its defense expenditure and is impossible for Taiwan.

Sunday morning and bomb talk on people's minds.

Sad.

Sunday morning and bomb talk on people's minds.

if you want peace, prepare for war.

Sad but true.

Bombs are on the CCPs and Putins mind unfortunately.

At the 2007 Munich conference, Putin invited the West to consider security guarantees for Russia and other countries. If you didn’t listen then, listen now. everything else is a consequence, and the reason is NATO’s expansion to the east plus the arms trade. what we see now is that everyone makes money from the war. so there is no need to look here for who is right and who is wrong. all parties make a profit.

Target the leaders - the ones who start the wars and order the invasions. It's cheaper, quicker, kills far fewer civilians, destroys fewer cities and reduces emissions.

Japan is not ready for prime time, they still have internal security and corruption issues to address. Not to mention labor shortage across the spectrum, including JSDF recruiting.

Australia basically allows the UK and the US to use their bases and have to pay them for doing so, plus pay for submarines that they won't have.

Japan has to listen to the US and do what the US tells her to do. Increase military budget. There you go.

if you want peace, prepare for war.

True for China as well. Thank God for peace.

It seems that relying on weapons that have such low production numbers is not very smart. Even ramping up production as fast as possible, at least during peace time in the nations producing them, will still provide yearly production numbers that could be expended by Ukraine alone in a couple of months of heavy fighting. How they plan on supplying the US and allies using them in a major conflict is baffling.

MHI is not producing these missiles for the defense of Japan.

Patriot systems are overhyped and as the article indicates - overpriced. The interceptors cost millions each.

Russian forces have greased them without much of an issue and the usual barks for more.

It should have been an all hands on deck moment in 2022. CEOs across the OECD should have received calls with their marching orders...

The CEOs of these companies get their "marching orders" from their respective boards of directors. Their interests frequently diverge from those of the nations buying their weapons. The people in the C-Suite are rewarded for stock price and cash flow. That is 85% of what they are scored on. On time delivery, customer service and employee satisfaction each are about 1% of their score when their annual pay is calculated. Being late and over budget is actually good for both cash flow and their stock price so members of the C-Suite excel at being late and over budget. Being on time and on or under the contract price is a money loser.

I am not going to name names but there are defense contractors who's management sensing the rapid increase in demand, are raising prices up to 40% over the course of one year for weapons they have been making for a decade. No change in configuration. Same product next year they produced this year. Input costs have not changed. But suddenly some big contractors want 40% more. The government negotiating team isn't accepting the cost increase and the contractor is not backing down. Negotiations are stalemated. This is not confined to one weapon either.

As a result annual lots of some weapons are not being bought because the government won't accept the price increases being demanded. In some instances the government is setting up their own production line to get around greedy contractors where they can, but the government does not always own the rights to the drawings, data and software.

Russian forces have greased them without much of an issue and the usual barks for more.

They damaged or destroyed three German made Patriot launchers when the Ukrainians ran out of missiles to shoot. Patriot batteries in Ukraine and the Middle East have shot down more ballistic and cruise missiles than any other weapon system. Literally no other system has a better combat record for ballistic missile defense, which is why so many nations want them.

@DT seeing that the USA military is constantly waging war around the globe (or its proxies), I hope so.

So Japan is fine with mass murder, just as long as it isn't nuclear.

No

nikToday 07:51 am JST

At the 2007 Munich conference, Putin invited the West to consider security guarantees for Russia and other countries. If you didn’t listen then, listen now. everything else is a consequence, and the reason is NATO’s expansion to the east plus the arms trade. what we see now is that everyone makes money from the war. so there is no need to look here for who is right and who is wrong. all parties make a profit.

Yeah, Putin issued a tirade with not appropriate back channel to ask for changes. NATO is just the cause when it is convenient (even though Ukraine isn't in NATO). Otherwise it is oppressing people or nazis or some other nonsense.

Desert TortoiseToday 09:43 am JST

It should have been an all hands on deck moment in 2022. CEOs across the OECD should have received calls with their marching orders...

The CEOs of these companies get their "marching orders" from their respective boards of directors.

That is why there is a Defense Production Act to bring in a new group of directors when they don't follow the plan that is handed to them.

NATO was never convenient since the end of the Cold War with Soviet Union, in 1991, and the dissolution of its component republics, and War was never an expedient for European countries which benefited from a healthy relationship with Russia. But war has always been advantageous for United States of America and all their weapons manufactures (the top five companies globally are American and listed on Wall Street) who thrive only during armed conflicts. This is not rocket science. 

It is not ok for Ukraine to set up nuclear missiles pointing out to Moscow, same as it would not be ok to allow placing Russian rockets in Mexico aiming to Florida. Mexico would be incinerated way before their installation. We are talking about double standards here.

The destruction in Gaza done by Israel would stop the moment the White House ceases the delivery of weapons made in Usa. But then it would stop the business made by these greedy hedge funds. The Asia Pacific region and the Taiwan strait would be much safer places if it was not for the propaganda anti China spread out by the US military apparatus, and the naive allies.

It will be well over by then. I feel a disturbance in the force. Too little, too late Japan.

FosToday 04:37 pm JST

NATO was never convenient since the end of the Cold War with Soviet Union, in 1991, and the dissolution of its component republics, and War was never an expedient for European countries which benefited from a healthy relationship with Russia. But war has always been advantageous for United States of America and all their weapons manufactures (the top five companies globally are American and listed on Wall Street) who thrive only during armed conflicts. This is not rocket science. 

Weapons manufacturers are 3% of US GDP but don't let that effect your narrative.

It is not ok for Ukraine to set up nuclear missiles pointing out to Moscow, same as it would not be ok to allow placing Russian rockets in Mexico aiming to Florida. Mexico would be incinerated way before their installation. We are talking about double standards here.

Nobody has ever talked about putting nuclear missiles into Ukraine, although it is sure looking like Russia's lies really have come back to haunt that country.

The destruction in Gaza done by Israel would stop the moment the White House ceases the delivery of weapons made in Usa. But then it would stop the business made by these greedy hedge funds. The Asia Pacific region and the Taiwan strait would be much safer places if it was not for the propaganda anti China spread out by the US military apparatus, and the naive allies.

China has conflicts with all of its neighbors and is rattling the saber to boot.

Weapons manufacturers are 3% of US GDP but don't let that effect your narrative.

Here it is back and forth, back and forth, with the same fairytale :) DO you really believe that 'maintaining' over 600 ((officially) US military bases around the world and with the multi billions companies they support the weapons industry can be only 3% of the US GDP? This is a narrative they you keep repeating which is hard to believe, realistically. According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the United States remains the world's largest arms exporter responsible for 41.7 percent of international arms sales and supplying arms to more than 100 countries.

Nobody has ever talked about putting nuclear missiles into Ukraine, although it is sure looking like Russia's lies really have come back to haunt that country.

Ah ok, thank you, I must have missed something in the last two years. Never mind with what is happening in Poland and the Baltic States or even Italy, countries which have voted for non proliferation treaty but who need to hold nuclear weapons made in USA and have not saying over their constitution.

China has conflicts with all of its neighbors and is rattling the saber to boot.

Once again the activities of China are those narrated by the US propaganda. I see Taiwan as peaceful and prosperous country in Asia. You see what they want you to believe, when they talk about invasion, And it is a shame that people like you reached this point for some blokes on the boardrooms based in Wall Street with a retreat on the Bahamas. You pay the takes in Japan to buy US made Patriots and make them happy.

FosToday 05:14 pm JST

Weapons manufacturers are 3% of US GDP but don't let that effect your narrative.

Here it is back and forth, back and forth, with the same fairytale :)

You keep bringing it up so i will keep correcting you.

DO you really believe that 'maintaining' over 600 ((officially) US military bases around the world and with the multi billions companies they support the weapons industry can be only 3% of the US GDP?

When your GDP is 29 trillion. You never actually check what the size of those "bases" are. I suspect most of them are storage units.

This is a narrative they you keep repeating which is hard to believe, realistically.

Facts are stubborn things, aren't they?

According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the United States remains the world's largest arms exporter responsible for 41.7 percent of international arms sales and supplying arms to more than 100 countries.

We have the entire OECD to supply and that is a good thing.

Nobody has ever talked about putting nuclear missiles into Ukraine, although it is sure looking like Russia's lies really have come back to haunt that country.

Ah ok, thank you, I must have missed something in the last two years. Never mind with what is happening in Poland and the Baltic States or even Italy, countries which have voted for non proliferation treaty but who need to hold nuclear weapons made in USA and have not saying over their constitution.

None of the countries you mentioned are called "Ukraine". Close to zero military hardware would have been moving but Putin tore up all notions of mutual respect in 2022, so now to the borders they go.

China has conflicts with all of its neighbors and is rattling the saber to boot.

Once again the activities of China are those narrated by the US propaganda. I see Taiwan as peaceful and prosperous country in Asia. You see what they want you to believe, when they talk about invasion, And it is a shame that people like you reached this point for some blokes on the boardrooms based in Wall Street with a retreat on the Bahamas.

Keeping 30 some million Ukrainians independent and 24 million Taiwanese alive is more important than bottom lines, but keep pushing the nonsense narrative so I can keep shooting it down.

Too many weapons, too many people in hardship and hungry. Will we as humans ever do what’s right for the world. Makes me so cross seeing all this never ending spending on this stuff. Yet some still glorify wars and dehumanise fellow humans just because of their place of birth.

It seems to me that you have a narrative of your own, and it is not my job to convince you otherwise. 

I would place the dignity of Okinawa women at the same level of Ukrainians men that, more than remain independent want to stay alive and not ordered to fight and die for the economic interests of some US and UK companies. 

Or Taiwanese people who are much closer to the Han ethnic group - and most definitely Asia - than those of the Ceos in the Silicon Valley who cannot wait to incorporate the TMSC business as a whole into their own economy. 

Funny how you talk about borders and mutual respect between Nato and Putin, since you probably are not aware of the Minsk agreement. But that is probably much to ask. The notion of History is not something which goes hand in hand with ethics and war. 

True me, “there is nothing to shot down”, I would not want to compete with your rhetoric. I am not invested in any business warmongering, in Europe, Middle East or God forbid Asia.

falseflagsteveToday 05:47 pm JST

Too many weapons, too many people in hardship and hungry. Will we as humans ever do what’s right for the world. Makes me so cross seeing all this never ending spending on this stuff. Yet some still glorify wars and dehumanise fellow humans just because of their place of birth.

You should start by condemning Putin's heinous assault of a peaceful country then.

FosToday 05:47 pm JST

I would place the dignity of Okinawa women at the same level of Ukrainians men that, more than remain independent want to stay alive and not ordered to fight and die for the economic interests of some US and UK companies. 

1) It is crime for anyone to assault an Okinawan women. Dignity successfully protected. 2) Ukrainians didn't off 100k terrorists because of orders from the US and the UK. They genuinely hate Russia with the burning of a thousand suns now.

Or Taiwanese people who are much closer to the Han ethnic group - and most definitely Asia - than those of the Ceos in the Silicon Valley who cannot wait to incorporate the TMSC business as a whole into their own economy. 

The Taiwanese want nothing to do with the garbage system on the mainland. They don't even want to be called Chinese anymore.

Funny how you talk about borders and mutual respect between Nato and Putin, since you probably are not aware of the Minsk agreement. But that is probably much to ask. The notion of History is not something which goes hand in hand with ethics and war. 

The history of the Minsk agreement is one of Russia ignoring it's obligations and then invading anyways.

True me, “there is nothing to shot down”, I would not want to compete with your rhetoric. I am not invested in any business warmongering, in Europe, Middle East or God forbid Asia.

Then we can dispense with the claims that Russia didn't start the biggest war in 80 years in Europe with China as the financier.

I am a Buddhist and pacifist but accept the need for defense. A country needs to be able to defend itself from foreign invasion.

Oh... and by the way, that is a great interpretation on the Minsk agreement.

Hilarious Taiwan, with due respect, keep entertaining us :)

"The history of the Minsk agreement is one of Russia ignoring it's obligations and then invading anyways".

falseflagsteve

There are always people against peace and diplomacy because they put their own (economic) interests first. It happens more often to organizations but also on individual level. And for some twisted vision of history and geopolitics. I wonder what/who is behind it.

Kudos for Japan Today who manages this forum without filters.

Well hello Japan. You have not yet been enough in this military bustle, they will sort it out without you, sit and do farming, don’t listen to all the Americans there, they will promise you a lot, but will give you nothing to hold on to.

Good things come to those who wait.!. Freedom and peace don’t come free or even cheap .!. Everyone around the world who has freedom to express themselves owes that freedom to the USA.!. America doesn’t start wars.!. It ends them .!. And it has the best defensive weaponry to defend itself and allies.!. Putin’s war against Ukraine isn’t merely about a bully bombing its neighbor into submission.!. It may embolden China into a false sense of security or superiority that it can invade any country it sees fit including but not limited to Taiwan.!. Luckily , NATO is around to keep these tyrants in check.!. Putin bit off more that he could chew and is slowly choking on it .!. I suggest some polish up on their lack of knowledge about world history.!. Stop passively allowing bullies to get away with their crimes.!. I feel sorry for some of your neighbors.!.

When it first came out, I thought that the Patriot interceptor was a boondoggle, but its performance since has been exemplary. It is the best missile interceptor in the world.

I do not know the details of why there is a production problem, but given the actions of Russia, North Korea, and China, it would be wise to get the production road blocks fixed sooner rather than later.

I think most us are done with the Hollywood movies, about cowboys being depicted as good guys killing the native Indians. That’s good one: “America does not start wars….” I recommend a quick check on modern history (not so recent I am afraid), and the dozens of coup of democratic elected leader around the world done by previous US administrations. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wIOqHSsV9c

Perhaps people don’t want that type of capitalism and double standards. As for freedom, for sure Palestinian and many more countries around the world, the only thing they owe to Washington is death and destruction for money and greed. No thanks.

That is why there is a Defense Production Act to bring in a new group of directors when they don't follow the plan that is handed to them.

Sorry but the US Government has no authority to force a change in the boards of directors of defense firms. There would be a blizzard of lawsuits if the US Government tried and the corporations would prevail.

Below is the scope of what is authorized by the Defense Procurement Act of 1950. There is nothing in the law that permits the Federal Government to replace members of the boards of directors.

Title I: Priorities and Allocations, which allows the President to require persons (including businesses

and corporations) to prioritize and accept contracts for materials and services as necessary to promote the

national defense.

• Title III: Expansion of Productive Capacity and Supply, which allows the President to incentivize the

domestic industrial base to expand the production and supply of critical materials and goods. Authorized

incentives include loans, loan guarantees, direct purchases and purchase commitments, and the authority to

procure and install equipment in private industrial facilities.

• Title VII: General Provisions, which includes key definitions for the DPA and several distinct authorities,

including the authority to establish voluntary agreements with private industry; the authority to block

proposed or pending foreign corporate mergers, acquisitions, or takeovers that threaten national security;

and the authority to employ persons of outstanding experience and ability and to establish a volunteer pool

of industry executives who could be called to government service in the interest of the national defense.

Short of a declared war or similar military emergency any attempt by the US Government to use the DPA would probably be defeated in the courts.

When it first came out, I thought that the Patriot interceptor was a boondoggle, but its performance since has been exemplary. It is the best missile interceptor in the world.

The missiles used by the Patriot system have been changed greatly over the years. The most recent configuration PAC-3 MSE for Missile Segment Enhancement has no hardware or software common the the configuration of Patriot used in Desert Storm. It has evolved ahead of the threat.

But if you want to talk about the premier ballistic missile defense weapon you have to talk about Standard Missile SM-3. The US Navy was shooting down Iranian ballistic missiles aimed at Israel from ships in the Mediterranean Sea. SM-3 has also been used in the Red Sea and so far has a 100% P hit (probability of a hit). Japan and the US are co-developing the next iteration, SM-3 Block II. It has demonstrated the ability to hit an ICBM target outside the atmosphere. So far it is the only missile in anyone's arsenal to reliably hit an ICBM target.

I do not know the details of why there is a production problem, but given the actions of Russia, North Korea, and China, it would be wise to get the production road blocks fixed sooner rather than later.

One of the reasons the US wants to distribute production of missiles like Patriot is to overcome such supply bottlenecks and allow higher production rates in the event there is a war. There are supposedly plans for Australia to produce Tomahawks and whatever air breathing hypersonic cruise missile the US eventually adopts out of a current competition. Sidewinder and some Army missiles have been produced in Germany over the years to support NATO war stocks so there is precedent for Japanese Patriot production. In a war with China Japan and the other western allies are going to burn through a lot of them defending themselves.

Steven Mccarth

“America doesn’t start wars.!. It ends them .!. “ That is one of best quotes I have heard in such a long time :) 

Must belong to one of those American heroes movies, like Terminator or Fast and Furious. It is true what previous people said: enough of cowboys inciting hostility and rage towards those regimes that dissent from American views and which hinder their economic interests. 

The Brics are bigger than G7, and perhaps Brazilian or South African people don’t want to share the American dream. If ever there was one you were trying to sell which was void of the blatant greed present in Wall Street. There is no other explanation for Washington support to Israel’s wars and nobody can legitimize you aspirations “to sell freedom” when you see that devastation on such a big scale, and the loss of human lives. And I don’t dare revising back the history of the last 20 years because it is too painful. Certainly Russia did not invade Iraq, or China did not kill scored of civilians in Afghanistan, devastating the country. The world would be a more peaceful and untroubled place without those double standards of yours.

The Brics are bigger than G7, and perhaps Brazilian or South African people don’t want to share the American dream. If ever there was one you were trying to sell which was void of the blatant greed present in Wall Street. There is no other explanation for Washington support to Israel’s wars

There is a vastly more powerful reason why the US supports Israel no matter what. it is the belief among conservative Christians based on the Book of Revelations that a hegemonic and aggressive Israel has to start that big final war called Armageddon described in Revelations that leads to the second coming of their savior Jesus and their salvation. It is not financial and it is not because the Christians like the Jews as so many of them also say the Jews will all go to hell for killing Jesus. They see Israel at war as their ticket to salvation. I know that sounds kooky but I have evangelical Christians tell me this in all earnestness. Weeeee, Israel starts the big war and we all go to heaven. It's that simple, and that scary. The foreign policy of the world's mightiest nation held hostage to insane religious nonsense.