Originally appeared at ZeroHedge
It apparently took a global pandemic and corresponding economic shutdown of entire nations’ economies for the American public to realize that surprisingly, the US military relies heavily for supplies involved in weapons systems manufacturing just south of the border.
The Pentagon’s defense undersecretary for acquisition and sustainment, Ellen Lord, urged at the start of this week that Mexico reopen those factories which many US defense firms rely on, especially aircraft manufacturers, previously shuttered due to COVID-19.
Image via Safran Group
“I think one of the key things we have found out are some international dependencies,” Lord said Monday at a Pentagon press briefing. “Mexico right now is somewhat problematical for us but we’re working through our embassy, and then there are pockets in India, as well.”
This follows Lord previously saying she would write Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard “to ask for help to reopen international suppliers” in Mexico. “We are seeing impact on the industrial base by several pockets of closure internationally,” she had warned.
Lord said further in her Monday comments:
Domestically, we are seeing the greatest impacts in the aviation supply chain, ship-building, and small space launch. We are seeing impacts on the industrial base by several pockets of closure internationally. Particularly of note is Mexico, where we have a group of companies that are impacting many of our major primes.
Among major defense suppliers that have outsourced vital portions of their supply-chain to Mexico include General Dynamics, Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Textron, General Electric, Honeywell, and others.
amerikans r so incompetent that they require skilled employees from Mexico and India to manufacture their weapons
in fact it is the use of cheap labour workers, yes we are very skilled workers, but the money we earn is diferent than the usa workers, bussiness as usual
South american manufacturing is as good as any in the world,certainly better than taiwanese + south korean from the hard evidence of bits and pieces i seen in my days!
Looks like the lockdowns might actually end up saving some lives.
“Our major primes”, General Dynamics, Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Martin, Textron, General Electric, Honeywell”, all giving US tech to Safran, a French firm. Seven ‘primes’ milking their tax payers for millions and billions, while claiming to be ‘American Made’. CNN certainly won’t cover this, more cov19 if you please.