Industrial mobilization for WWII: How 20,000 companies made production commitments prior to war
Here is a piece on how assistant secretary of war for industrial mobilization Louis Johnson approached readiness in 1938 — prior to the break out […]
Search Results for mobilization
Lessons in mobilization: The industrial base is too small and too slow
In the event of major war, the identified industrial base dedicated to the Army would be unable to produce sufficient materiel to support combat consumption […]
The emergent order of industrial mobilization during WWII
In January 1941 defense spending rose to triple what it had been during the previous six months. By July it quintupled, and December it jumped […]
A meta analysis of industrial mobilization
Francis: You’re inference at the end of this piece, “It’s time to make industrial mobilization cool again,” infers that there was a time when it […]
Make industrial mobilization cool again — or is it for the first time?
The tradition of the Department of Defense is to define a weapon system end item, then fund that end item and the supplier base through […]
Effectiveness over Efficiency: Preparing the US Industrial Base for Mobilization
Mike Petters, President and CEO of Huntington Ingalls Industries: “Lack of resiliency comes from an overemphasis on efficiency at expense of risk management. I was […]
Is small business hurt by industrial mobilization? Lessons from WWII.
As a result of the impact of the gigantic national defense and war programs on our American economy, small business enterprise in the United States […]
Eric Lofgren
Hi! I’m Eric Lofgren, and I created the Acquisition Talk blog and podcast in October 2018 to advocate for management principles in the Department of […]
Acquisition Talk signing off… for now. Thank you!
It’s been a wonderful experience writing on this blog and podcasting about defense acquisition since October 2018. I’ve published over 1,400 blog posts and 160 […]
Does DoD need a public relations campaign for mobilizing industry?
In a previous post, I discussed how Assistant Secretary for War Mobilization Louis Johnson had traveled the country prior to World War II making hundreds […]
Acquisition headlines (1/30 – 2/5/2023)
Record defense budget flunks the China test. (Real Clear Defense) Jeb Nadaner: “The 2023 budget funds just a little more than a thousand new mid-to-long range conventional missiles, […]
How commercial industry helped saved the day in World War II
In the Pacific theater of World War II, allied landings on islands were challenged by shallow coral atolls that wrecked the normal landing craft available. […]
Stockpiling critical minerals must happen early and at scale
Here’s an excerpt from the War Production Board’s history of industrial mobilization for World War II, Industrial Mobilization For War: Volume 1 Program and Administration. […]
CSIS report on inadequate surge capacity for munitions
This table on surge capacity from Mark Cancian at CSIS has been making the rounds but I’ll repost it here because it is so important. […]
Getting to the battle fastest with the mostest
A post-World War II cartoon gets to a deep truth in defense acquisition. It shows American tanks on trial, supposedly for being outgunned and relatively […]