Road to 350: What Does the US Navy Do Anyway?

[Spekkio]

Imagine never have sat on a 3 or 4 Star staff and thinking you know how the bigger picture in the DoD works.

Imagine thinking someone hasn't done a staff tour because they disagree with you.

Also imagine starting a dick measuring contest with other staff weenies over where "the boss" sits in the pecking order.

This is like when a dependa thinks she wears her husband's rank.

 

[BigRed389]

Come on Chuck, of course we have that capacity, we simply don’t have the consumer market to make it worthwhile. A smart tech guy could establish a drone production line and build the necessary software in almost no time at all, but no venture capitalist will fund it because DJI has a lock on the market.

I mean Apple had a lock on smartphones for quite awhile. Look at where Android and others went.

The market certainly exists, but it will require a cohesive strategy to get there. Possibly some government help as well. I don’t see the supply chain getting totally US sourced so some allied economic partners will probably be required.

I think things like the “Blue List” are on the right track but you don’t get there with most some viable alternative.

 

[Spekkio]

I mean Apple had a lock on smartphones for quite awhile. Look at where Android and others went.

The market certainly exists, but it will require a cohesive strategy to get there. Possibly some government help as well. I don’t see the supply chain getting totally US sourced so some allied economic partners will probably be required.

I think things like the “Blue List” are on the right track but you don’t get there with most some viable alternative.

Apple never had "a lock" on smartphones. They cut into the blackberry crowd and Android put a nail in their coffin.

In 2010, smartphones were roughly 30% of the cell phone market and iPhones were roughly 30% of that. Blackberry was 30% and Android 20% of the smartphone market.

In 2014, Android captured more than 50% of global smartphone market share and never looked back.

Although Apple's advertising would tell you otherwise.

 

[Lawman]

I mean Apple had a lock on smartphones for quite awhile. Look at where Android and others went.

The market certainly exists, but it will require a cohesive strategy to get there. Possibly some government help as well. I don’t see the supply chain getting totally US sourced so some allied economic partners will probably be required.

I think things like the “Blue List” are on the right track but you don’t get there with most some viable alternative.

People can hate the guy for the hair care product line and the WWE style, but that memo the SecDef just posted went a huge way towards improving the low end spectrum of UAS.

We’ve been arguing for years to get group 1/2s taken into an expendable category. The amount of time wasted on investigations to determine the RC airplane lost link, ran out of battery, and crashed somewhere in the woods at no fault to the operator has been dumb. Worse has been the number of times we’ve needlessly exposed somebody in combat trying to find something as cheap as a Raven because “it’s on the property book.”

Expanding the supply input pool will help, but there is definitely a risk balance we are messing with, particularly since the thing is literally designed to receive an outside signal.

 

[number9]

Come on Chuck, of course we have that capacity, we simply don’t have the consumer market to make it worthwhile. A smart tech guy could establish a drone production line and build the necessary software in almost no time at all, but no venture capitalist will fund it because DJI has a lock on the market.

Respectfully, I think this is wrong. Where is the factory going to go? Where are the materials going to come from? Who's going to design the software? Who's going to design the hardware? Who's going to manufacture the hardware? Who's going to assemble the hardware?

I don't know what time horizon you have in mind but if we started today I don't think we could catch DJI in 5 years, and to be honest I'm a little worried that we could even catch them in 10.

I mean Apple had a lock on smartphones for quite awhile. Look at where Android and others went.

The market certainly exists, but it will require a cohesive strategy to get there. Possibly some government help as well. I don’t see the supply chain getting totally US sourced so some allied economic partners will probably be required.

I think things like the “Blue List” are on the right track but you don’t get there with most some viable alternative.

Apple continues to have a lock on the U.S. smartphone market; they have more than 60% market share. What they don't have is the majority of global market share. That goes to Android -- mostly because in the rest of the world you can buy really really cheap new Androids, but you can't buy cheap new iPhones.

 

[Griz882]

Respectfully, I think this is wrong. Where is the factory going to go? Where are the materials going to come from? Who's going to design the software? Who's going to design the hardware? Who's going to manufacture the hardware? Who's going to assemble the hardware?

I don't know what time horizon you have in mind but if we started today I don't think we could catch DJI in 5 years, and to be honest I'm a little worried that we could even catch them in 10.

Respectively, I’m not.

Why are you remotely concerned about a factory? These are drones. A smart developer could have them made in any number of small shops and shipped to the user. If big buildings are your thing…Texas. They love manufacturing facilities in Texas.

Who is going to design the software? Seriously? My kids college roommate who is 26 and raking in six figures with a BS in some coding crap. Him, or any of the other thousands U.S.A. SS who know how to do this. Better yet…a smart nerd with AI skills.

Who is going to design the hardware? Really? Any of the 200 high school kids at the last Army “robot rodeo” who were cranking out drones and robots to accomplish tasks given to them just hours before.

Who is going to assemble the hardware? Again…are you remotely serious? Who is going to assemble cars for us? Who is going to assemble our F-35’s? People who want jobs are going to do it. This is almost the dumbest thing I have read.

Two years ago the infant army of the Ukraine had exactly zero drones and no capability to make them at scale. Now, drones dominate the battlefield there and soldiers are doing every step you whine about above…in the field.

This is one, maybe two things, money (an investment source) and in terms of military use, an actual command focus on breaking with the past and using these things. We could surpass DJI in 24 months, not a laughable 120.

 

[Spekkio]

Respectively, I’m not.

Why are you remotely concerned about a factory? These are drones. A smart developer could have them made in any number of small shops and shipped to the user. If big buildings are your thing…Texas. They love manufacturing facilities in Texas.

Who is going to design the software? Seriously? My kids college roommate who is 26 and raking in six figures with a BS in some coding crap. Him, or any of the other thousands U.S.A. SS who know how to do this. Better yet…a smart nerd with AI skills.

Who is going to design the hardware? Really? Any of the 200 high school kids at the last Army “robot rodeo” who were cranking out drones and robots to accomplish tasks given to them just hours before.

Who is going to assemble the hardware? Again…are you remotely serious? Who is going to assemble cars for us? Who is going to assemble our F-35’s? People who want jobs are going to do it. This is almost the dumbest thing I have read.

Two years ago the infant army of the Ukraine had exactly zero drones and no capability to make them at scale. Now, drones dominate the battlefield there and soldiers are doing every step you whine about above…in the field.

This is one, maybe two things, money (an investment source) and in terms of military use, an actual command focus on breaking with the past and using these things. We could surpass DJI in 24 months, not a laughable 120.

Nooooo you need a $100B program of record with 3,000 civilians involved or else it won't work.

If you say otherwise, you clearly never worked for a 3 or 4 star!

 

[Lawman]

Nooooo you need a $100B program of record with 3,000 civilians involved or else it won't work.

If you say otherwise, you clearly never worked for a 3 or 4 star!

Some prime billionaire CEO when it’s reported out of experimentation their multi-year, multi-million dollar program of record drone is flying for literal single digit minutes of time in exercise… and is now rightly being cancelled.

 

[Hotdogs]

Imagine thinking someone hasn't done a staff tour because they disagree with you.

Also imagine starting a dick measuring contest with other staff weenies over where "the boss" sits in the pecking order.

This is like when a dependa thinks she wears her husband's rank.

The usual suspect is back.

A point of pride?Not really (quite painful actually, for most, actually) but it does generally make people more informed and sound less stupid when discussing these topics.

Definitely holds a little more water than “rawr, I’m angry at the man and I don’t know why, but I’ll continue to sound ignorant and offer solutions without identifying the problem.”

“ThE PaSs & TaG pEoPle aRe a bUncH of LazY ciVilIans!!… fIrE tHeM!!”

 

[Flash]

Imagine thinking someone hasn't done a staff tour because they disagree with you.

There is a very good reason that joint tours and education are mandated by law for promotion to higher rank nowadays, they are an invaluable education in 'how things work'...or don't. It can become quickly evident when someone hasn't had the benefit of those experiences when talking about 'how things work' with the government and the military and what doesn't, and how we could improve them. Someone who says this:

Go to any finance or ID card office and tell me that 20% of that workforce couldn’t be culled and achieve the same level of output.

And applying it to the government civilian workforce as a whole justifies responses like this:

You have no idea what you’re talking about.

And it is not because they are 'unwashed' or unworthy, it just that they demonstrated they likely don't know as much as they think about 'how things work'.