New manufacturing facilities are certainly one of the keys to increasing production. Today, it takes a company 3 to 5 years to build a new factory of any size and get it to full production… If we were under full mobilization, with all the advantages the Government can place, we might be able to squeeze 18 months out of the longest time it takes to get full production in a new plant. But it wouldn’t be possible to build a factory, train the people, and get the required high technology manufacturing tools we need in anything less-than 3 years.
In 1978, normal lead time for one of our military jet engines was 19 months. Today the Air Force has to order that engine 41 months before delivery. Certainly not all parts of the engine take more than 3 years. But critical parts, made from large titanium forgings do. It doesn’t take us any longer to build the engine than it did in 1978. All of the increase results from the availability and lead time of certain critical materials, such as titanium… Since 1967, the number of companies involved in aerospace production has declined by more than 40 percent. In 1967, there were approximately 6,000 companies in the industry. Today, there are only about 3,500.
That was Harry Gray, CEO of United Technologies, back in a 1980 hearing CAPABILITY OF U.S. DEFENSE INDUSTRIAL BASE HEARINGS BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES AND THE PANEL ON DEFENSE INDUSTRIAL BASE OF THE COMMITTEE ON ARMED SERVICES HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES NINETY-SIXTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION SEPTEMBER 17, 18, 25; OCTOBER 21, 22, 24; NOVEMBER 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20 AND DECEMBER 3, 1980.
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