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Congress can act fast to counter US munitions shortage — if country comes before party

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America’s “munitions shortage” is now making headlines, but the real problem is deeper and more dire: The entire US weapons-building industry is not only woefully weak, but geared up wrong.

While the United States must continue to have the best, cutting-edge defense tech, we also need to produce massive amounts of relatively cheap missiles and interceptors as well as drones on a huge scale.

The problems go all the way back to the misbegotten “reforms” of Vietnam-era Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, who all but eliminated real competition and entrepreneurial energy from Pentagon procurement.

They’ve been exacerbated by vast contraction of purchases and the industrial might to build as Washington began eviscerating Defense budgets in the Obama years (though the fateful reduction of US Navy shipbuilding dates back to the Bill Clinton era).

Start with the missile/interceptor shortage: In a July analysis, the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated........

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