China's successful mid-course anti-missile test some time ago allowed the whole world to see China's "shield". In response, the United States has also recently conducted related tests of the "Sentinel" intercontinental ballistic missile, intending to show off its latest "Spear". However, what the Americans did not expect was that this missile show failed to show off the strength of the United States. Instead, it exposed a lot of problems.
Comprehensive news shows that a US military "Minotaur 2" carrier rocket carrying the MK-21A re-entry vehicle exploded during a launch mission at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California and caused a fire at the base.
Note: MK-21A intercontinental missile re-entry vehicle
For the US military, this failure is undoubtedly a heavy blow. The "Sentinel" intercontinental missile project is likely to delay the development progress of at least one year. However, compared with the delay in research and development progress, the US military obviously has more important problems to solve.
Because in this launch mission, the MK-21A reentry vehicle as the nuclear warhead carrier and the Minotaur 2 launch vehicle as the booster stage used time-tested, mature and reliable technologies. There have been no similar launch accidents in the past few decades. It is no exaggeration to say that this launch failure was simply a low-level error that should not have occurred.
Note: Minotaur 2 launch vehicle
However, what is horrifying to think about is that, looking at the U.S. military’s weapons and equipment research and development projects in recent years, similar “low-level mistakes” are common. Previously, the AGM-183A missile developed by the U.S. Air Force had failed three consecutive test launches, and the CPS missiles of the U.S. Army and Navy also failed two consecutive test launches. Moreover, the problems with these missiles are all due to the failure of the missile's rocket engine to ignite successfully.
Note: The U.S. Air Force’s AGM-183A air-launched hypersonic weapon
You must know that during the Cold War , the United States made so many technical achievements in the field of rocket engines that even the Soviet Union had difficulty catching up. But today, the United States is in this situation where it should least be. There have been successive setbacks in the areas where problems have arisen. This has to make people wonder what is wrong with the U.S. military industry?
Regarding this issue, the U.S. military has actually thought about it, and the final answer has been mentioned repeatedly in various reports. That is, due to the new crown epidemic and the implementation of negative epidemic prevention policies, more than 50% of the population in the United States has been infected today. or have been infected with COVID-19. However, this did not give the American people the ability to coexist with the epidemic. Instead, they suffered from the sequelae of the new crown called "Long COVID."
This directly caused a large number of skilled workers to be unable to work normally or even left their jobs, triggering supply chain disruption and industrial chain collapse in the US manufacturing industry. In order to maintain production capacity, factories lacking workers can only relax quality control, resulting in a large number of substandard parts and products flowing into the military industry enterprise .
Illustration: The collapse of the supply chain has made it impossible for the United States to buy even milk powder, let alone military parts.
Faced with this situation, no matter how mature and advanced the technology is in the United States, it cannot convert the technology into quality products through factories. In the end, it will It appears that they are all of the same design, but the rocket engines produced before the epidemic can ignite normally, and it is "God bless the United States" that they did not explode during the epidemic.
"Long COVID" has an all-round impact on the United States. In addition to the impact on the research and development of new missiles, the development progress was rapid before the epidemic. The B-21 bomber , which is approaching its first flight, also suffered from the collapse of the supply chain during the epidemic. The first flight plan has been postponed several times, and the first flight time has not yet been determined.
Illustration: B-21 bomber
As of now, the domestic manufacturing industry in the United States has suffered terribly under the impact of the epidemic. In fact, it no longer has the ability to support the U.S. military in the research and development of weapons and equipment. If the U.S. military industry system wants to return to its pre-epidemic state, the top priority is to solve the epidemic problem instead of continuing to let the epidemic go unchecked. Otherwise, even if the military industry companies complete the research and development of weapons and equipment, I am afraid there will not be enough in the factories. Workers came to give them mass production equipment.
