What Is Wrong with Our Weapons Systems?

Lately there has been a rash of weapons that don’t work correctly. When I say lately am talking about in the last twenty years or so. I talked about this subject many times, how we buy things from big companies which are supposed to be very advanced weapons with the promise even though they don’t work correctly when we get them they will be fixed. It is an insane way to buy things unless there is an ulterior motive, such as lobbyists paying off purchasing agents and such. The weapons we have bought which are not fully functional range from aircraft carriers and airplanes down to rifles. During the Vietnam War, American soldiers were issued what is known as the M16. The rifle seems to work fine today, but this was not the case when it was issued for the first time in 1964. When the rifle was first issued the barrel would overheat jamming the rifle and  costing the lives of some soldiers in Vietnam. One would think the rifle would have been sufficiently tested before being issued to prevent this from happening. The answer to the problem was the chrome bore. An interesting point is that some of the soldiers in Vietnam purchased handguns against orders, because they didn’t want to be in a situation where they had no firepower. The military at the time was forbidding them from doing this because it embarrassed them so they would have rather let the soldiers die.

It seems the military just can’t get themselves to test properly and were probably told not to test certain weapons and systems before they are purchased. One system which one would believe is so simple nothing could go wrong with it is our optics for rifles. It turns out the optics from one company would fail when the weather got to cold or humid. I guess this company didn’t have too much juice, because they got sued by the US government and agreed to pay 25.6 million dollars to settle a lawsuit, because it was proved they knowingly sold us defective sights. They were actually sued for fraud. Can you imagine using this practice for the big purchases we make of weapons and systems? An example of this might be suing the company who built and installed certain systems on aircraft carriers and a company which built defective fighter planes. We are talking about a lawsuit which potentially could put one of these big companies completely out of business and this is why it will probably never happen.

There has been a claim for years the US military knowingly shipped defective machine gun parts out to units. One soldier who had his reliable machine gun replaced with a new M2 50 caliber machine gun was told to test fire it. When he did he didn’t think anything happened and couldn’t figure out what wrong and tried several times, but then realized there was a pool of blood coming from his leg. Somehow the gun had injured him even though it hadn’t fired. He was rushed to the hospital and eventually released from the military, because blood clots were forming in his veins and it is no wonder he developed post-traumatic stress disorder. We are talking about a machine gun which has been used by the Army since the 1930s. It is a very simple machine. When the gun fires a bolt pushes the next bullet into the chamber after it is pushed back by the bullet blast before. A faulty bolt can cause damage to the gun’s case and to the operator of the gun. This was just the tip of the iceberg as many soldiers complained about their M2 machine guns failure to fire. A website named Motherboard contains an article which states thousands of defective parts have been sent all over the world to soldiers and Marines. They claim the government failed to test the critical gun parts it bought. This sort of reminds me when parts on commercial airliners were failing and it was found the problem was bolts which were bought from China which couldn’t take the stress the original manufacturer’s bolts could. The airlines quickly resolved this problem.

If we talk about nuclear weapons, we are presented with other problems. It is claimed while other countries are updating their nuclear stockpiles we have decided to keep the same designs from the 1960s. Scientists claim this country should be more resilient as far as nuclear weapons are concerned. If we find a game changer regarding nuclear weapons being developed by another country we should adjust our nuclear arsenal. As crazy as this sounds there is supposedly a Presidential Decision Directive-15 (PDD-15) which requires the US to maintain the ability to conduct a nuclear test within 24 to 36 months of presidential decision to do so. Can you imagine if we need to test nuclear weapon we have to wait 2 to 3 years to do it? We don’t even know how much of the inactive nuclear stockpile is going to be put through a life extension program. Some scientists and engineers say as we refurbish these aging weapons it eventually changes their design. Does this mean if we fire nukes they may not go off? It turns out we are laying off many of the employees who have experience with the nuclear weapons program. I could go on and tell you how the United States Air Force’s mission to deliver nuclear weapons has declined and how our readiness has been seriously compromised, but I think it is sufficient to say we may not be as ready if nuclear war comes as the population thinks it is.

We are being surpassed in some areas in regard to weapons capabilities. There is no doubt we still possess a serious threat to anyone who opposes us, however this threat is diminishing as we given in to corrupt purchasing policies. It is such a shame some people in a position of power in a country as great as this are putting their personal desires for enrichment ahead of the lives of the people in the military and the protection of their country.