Ever wonder why we're about to go bankrupt?

[1 Patriot-of-many]

http://www.govliquidation.com/auctio...&convertTo=USD


Yep five of these are 50K. This is so wrong. Scroll down to see the acquired value. You could buy a truck for one of these shafts.

[Warthogg]

Ever wonder why we're about to go bankrupt?

I do not wonder "why" but thanks for the post.


Wart

[samiam]

the military-industrial complex has been sticking it in Uncle Sam's ass for a long time . . meanwhile the rest of America is forced into a bunch of McJobs

[tank_monkey]

Though I agree that no bid contracts make for abuse, I assume none of you run companies that have to make ONE OFF prototypes of any type of precision machinery. It's expensive.

Here's a trick. Try paying a machinist to MAKE a custom part to a rare gun you have. (one who doesn't tinker for fun). It will be more expensive than the mass produced pieces.

Better yet, try to have it withstand some sort of pressure and guarantee NOT TO FAIL before a certain number of actuations. Like a gun barrel. A remington 870 barrel is about 100-200 Dollars. Trying making that barrel to very weird specs. See the $$ fly.

Making only a few or even ONE prototype takes $$. Making a limit number of highly specialized parts (even parts that are only slightly different in measurements) makes that item way more expensive than off the shelf items.

Now I don't know what the industry standard for these items would be, but I guarantee you, these items would be a fraction of the price if THOUSANDS Of them were sold at Walmart every day. That's when the economy of MASS PRODUCTION kicks in.

Just something to think about. (and yes, I've had to pay for limited runs or one offs of precision machined metal parts. That's why I'm less flabbergasted by costs. Especially ones which had to go through months of testing, remanufacture and retesting by the client.

[El Laton Caliente]

Those have likely been sitting on the shelf since the 1970s. They are for the old Hueys that the Military isn't using any more. The Military always buys spare parts for machinery and not all of it gets used. Some spare parts are on a max / min system for the run life of the equipment and the inventory is liquadated when the machines are replaced.

Industry does similar things, but there is is tied to cost effectiveness vs. downtime, not "battle ready".

Hell, those are cheap, check the cost for a Black Hawlk crate motor! It is a 90lbs 4,000HP motor...

[mriddick]

Few lament the bankruptcy as much as I have but another reason for super expensive military items is the military needs to fund somethings off the books for various reasons (from need to just because they like to). It's been found before that $600 hammers really weren't $600 hammers but a way to get $580 off the books along with a $20 hammer... But a thousand (or 2) $600 hammers and you got a pretty good chunk of change off the books.

[1 Patriot-of-many]

Though I agree that no bid contracts make for abuse, I assume none of you run companies that have to make ONE OFF prototypes of any type of precision machinery. It's expensive.

Here's a trick. Try paying a machinist to MAKE a custom part to a rare gun you have. (one who doesn't tinker for fun). It will be more expensive than the mass produced pieces.

Better yet, try to have it withstand some sort of pressure and guarantee NOT TO FAIL before a certain number of actuations. Like a gun barrel. A remington 870 barrel is about 100-200 Dollars. Trying making that barrel to very weird specs. See the $$ fly.

Making only a few or even ONE prototype takes $$. Making a limit number of highly specialized parts (even parts that are only slightly different in measurements) makes that item way more expensive than off the shelf items.

Now I don't know what the industry standard for these items would be, but I guarantee you, these items would be a fraction of the price if THOUSANDS Of them were sold at Walmart every day. That's when the economy of MASS PRODUCTION kicks in.

Just something to think about. (and yes, I've had to pay for limited runs or one offs of precision machined metal parts. That's why I'm less flabbergasted by costs. Especially ones which had to go through months of testing, remanufacture and retesting by the client.

I'm guessing there's been quite a few UH1's built.

[Krupski]

http://www.govliquidation.com/auctio...&convertTo=USD


Yep five of these are 50K. This is so wrong. Scroll down to see the acquired value. You could buy a truck for one of these shafts.

About 9K each.

Let's see you forge one of those out of whatever exotic steel it uses, then xray inspect the part and finally certify that the part won't break and kill the helicopter crew... for less than $9K.

This isn't the kind of part you can find at Sears...