“Mr. President, from the air we can dramatically slow them, but it takes ground troops to get them to stop and, ultimately, turn around,” answered the General.
The President nodded, rubbed his chin, sipped his coffee, “Thanks, I was afraid you would say that, continue.”
“As you know, there are different groups, all of different religious affiliations, who have all claimed to have rights to various parts of Israel. This has been going on for years. This is a clear attempt by the Iranians to get in there quickly and redraw the boundaries before any kind of peace negotiations can even become a topic of discussion. We are watching for any other nation which has claimed regions of Israel as their own in the past for any hint of troop movement preparations.
“In order to protect our ally, we want to offer up what aircraft we have within range and start bombing operations against their conventional forces as soon as possible. We will be able to tell in the next day or so how long it will take for them to be ready to move, but every indication we have is that they are close, meaning no more than three weeks away. We cannot allow them to complete those preparations on their timetable. We will be able to slow them down before they get on the road. If we delay and they are on the move, then it complicates any bombing operation.”
The display behind the General changed to a split screen format. On one side there was a picture labeled BEFORE. It showed a state of the art facility at Lockheed Martin. The other side showed the remains of that same facility after the attack, labeled AFTER.
As the General started to speak, the screen continued to change showing different locations before and after shots. There were almost no identifiable objects present in the various pictures flipping past on the post-attack side. Every one of them was comprised of either empty burnt space, or giant piles of twisted metal. Nothing visible gave an indication that this facility was recently used as a manufacturing plant.
“Moving onto our domestic damage assessment. Mr. President, as you can see the situation on the ground in Fort Worth is essentially as we feared, especially as we get closer to ground zero. We now have a reasonable understanding of the industrial impact, thanks in large part to our unmanned aerial vehicles. Any ability we had to do final assembly on fighter or bomber aircraft is gone. That is the bad news.
“On the good news side, many of our prime, or large defense contractors, long ago became almost purely system integrators. As a result they don’t make, but instead purchase, many of the parts that are then assembled into the larger systems and vehicles we use in the field. Even though many of those parts suppliers are relatively local to this facility the damage radius was insufficient to reach many of those suppliers, other than a few smaller ones for which we already have alternative vendors identified.”
“Let me see if I understand what you just told me. At this moment, we can’t field new aircraft but we can keep the ones we have in the air?” asked the President.
The General was starting to like this President a little more. The man liked to cut through the bullshit, which was a pleasant departure from his predecessor, “Essentially that is correct, Mr. President. Normal maintenance can be done as well as some combat repairs. However, there are limits, but in general this is very good news. The Dallas Fort Worth Metropolitan area is home to many of these companies, but they are spread over a great many miles. This device was really not that large as far as nuclear weapons go, so we aren’t in as bad of shape as we could have been.”
The General paused for a sip of coffee as a new picture behind him came into focus, “Additionally, Mr. President, we have been told by several other aircraft manufacturers that in a matter of months they can begin to do some retooling to give Lockheed a chance to use their facility to produce whatever aircraft we may need if we go into a lengthy war. These companies, Mister President, they are run by people who are doing the right thing rather than trying to destroy one another and build up their own profits in the process. They are actually trying to help each other and respond quickly to this crisis, which is not their usual behavior. That behavior may not last long, but we live in unusual times.”
As he spoke the display scrolled through images related to what he was saying. The images showed facilities designed to produce parts for airplanes. Some of these were for mechanical parts, while others were clearly for electronic components. All of these facilities added up to what it would take to produce modern day military aircraft.
The pictures then stopped on one labeled, “Detroit — Ground Vehicle Fabrication.” If it were not for the label, there would be no way to tell where the picture was taken.
“Mister President, I am sorry to say that Detroit is a different situation.” The General paused briefly, “This device was five times larger in destructive force, and here the assembly lines and the parts suppliers were much closer together. The city is much more densely packed than Dallas/Fort Worth, and I am afraid that other than tires, it will be some time before we can do much to produce any replacement parts for military ground vehicles. The same is true for a large portion of our domestic automobile companies. From a military perspective we currently have a six month supply of parts, assuming an active war time operational tempo with losses inside typical projections.”
The display changed to show an aerial view of an Army depot with row after row of a variety of military ground vehicles, “Mister President, unlike aircraft, for ground vehicles we have extensive surplus depots. All of the vehicles you see here were deemed too costly to repair, and therefore set aside for either the surplus sales market or slated for scrap.
“Normally there is some attempt made to scavenge parts. However, many are left behind that may have a very limited lifetime for specific parts if they are useable at all. I have ordered those instructions cancelled and for all of these vehicles to be picked clean for any and all parts which may be useable, even if it is only for a small period of time. This will extend the lifetime of our spare parts inventory. How long it will extend it we don’t know yet.
“That action will result in vehicles spending more time in repair depots, which is not what you want while engaged in an active ground conflict. However, that is better than the alternative of no spare parts at all.”
The Secretary of Defense spoke up for the first time, “Mr. President, my counterpart in Japan claims that their automotive industry can be ready to start supplying us in a matter of months. In the short-term that will be an offer to seriously consider.”
The General looked cautiously at the President rather than addressing the Secretary, “Mr. President, that is a fine short-term solution, but normally we don’t like to be dependent upon foreign sources, in fact we don’t use them for many components in any fashion on a regular basis. Today is not when we need to worry about normal, and this certainly solves the problem in front of us. However, do not fall into the trap of thinking that means the problem is solved for all time.
“Long-term, especially in a country at War, it will not be beneficial to depend on another country for our military needs, even a close ally. We will have to start to rebuild our own infrastructure in these functional areas as well as make sure an incident like these cannot cripple us like this again, and that is a task we should not delay, but is the subject for a different meeting.
“That being said, between the aircraft suppliers and the Japanese we are rather lucky here.”
The President was starting to show some signs of stress much more so than when he arrived in the briefing, “Lieutenant, please go back to the first image of Detroit.”
The Commander in Chief rose and circled the conference table.