How Quickly Can the DoD Rebuild and Recast the Munitions Industrial Base?

Re:How Quickly Can the DoD Rebuild and Recast the Munitions ... by cameldrv on Monday October 19, 2026 @01:22AM (#50148672)

A tomahawk has a good INS, which is still expensive, and it has to be able to sit for years in a tube getting banged around with the waves, and launch on a moments notice.

That’s not to say that it should cost 2.5 million, but Ukraine doesn’t need storability and durability because I think they pretty much get driven from the factory to the launch site in a matter of days.

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Re:How Quickly Can the DoD Rebuild and Recast the Munitions ... by vasco on Monday October 19, 2026 @02:38AM (#50149097)

There's not some expensive magic to do that. They buy military grade chips and that's it. Any vendor can make the same with the same promise.

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Re:How Quickly Can the DoD Rebuild and Recast the Munitions ... by cameldrv on Monday October 19, 2026 @12:23PM (#50154332)

I don't know exactly what the state of the art is now in MEMS gyros, but I'm pretty sure the tomahawk uses mechanical or ring laser gyros. Those systems are expensive.

For the reliability/storability parts though, the electronics are probably the least of the issues. You've got a jet engine in there that needs fuel, oil, and has a number of high speed moving parts. Having something like that sit for years in a ship and work with high reliability is not so simple.

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