Originally Posted by
tdracer
I read an article quite a while ago - basically said that the next big war would be fought with what you had on hand - that the lead time associated with modern weapons was so long - and their lethality so great (i.e. losses would be so massive and rapid) that by the time you could ramp up massive production (WW II style), the war would be over.
This has been a truism that got its genesis in the necking down of the contractor/business/industrial base in the 90's, which accelerated about a decade ago. Long lead times have become longer lead times. (Not sure what you saw at Boeing in that regard on the civil side).
Your point on 'come as you are' takes us back to war becoming (as I noted in the
Moskva thread as regards Russian views on naval warfare) 'the battle of the first salvo' at the high end.
At the low end there are a variety of examples of how it just keeps going and going.