Raytheon has called in retired engineers to help produce Stinger anti-aircraft missiles that the US has been providing Ukraine, Defense One reported on Thursday.
Stingers are shoulder-fired missiles that were out of production for 20 years until the US started sending them to Ukraine when Russia first invaded last year, a policy led by a former Raytheon board member, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
According to the Pentagon, the US has provided Ukraine with over 1,700 Stinger missile systems to date.
“Stinger’s been out of production for 20 years, and all of a sudden in the first 48 hours [of the war], it’s the star of the show and everybody wants more,” Wes Kremer, the president of Raytheon Missiles & Defense, said last week.
Raytheon needs to produce the Stingers using blueprints drawn up during the Carter administration, as using more advanced production methods would require redesigning the weapon.
“We were bringing back retired employees that are in their 70s … to teach our new employees how to actually build a Stinger,” Kremer said. “We’re pulling test equipment out of warehouses and blowing the spider webs off of them.”
The US Army placed an order for Stingers in May 2022 to replace ones sent to Ukraine, but the Pentagon said they won’t be delivered until 2026. Kremer said it would take at least 30 months for the first missiles to be completed due to the time it will take to restart production.
In March 2022, Raytheon CEO Greg Hayes explained how the war in Ukraine would be a boon for the weapons maker. “Everything that’s being shipped into Ukraine today, of course, is coming out of stockpiles, either at DoD or from our NATO allies, and that’s all great news. Eventually we’ll have to replenish it and we will see a benefit to the business over the next coming years,” he said.
This is pathetic.
Something obscene about his gushing.
Lol…! More than half of those 1700 Stingers were sold by Ukraine in black market to the highest bidders…! And that is the real reason it is in high demand…!
The death throes of all empires involve the frantic mindless production of weapons that will eventually be used on them. They are the seeds of its own destruction.
The Russian/Afghan deal comes to mind. The Mujahideen utilized the weapons left over as the new terrorist group, Al-Queda. Oh yeah, we created that bunch. Real smooth, huh?
Maybe not half, but a good amount. We are sure they landed in good hands, right?
If the Stingers are useful militarily, this should have been done last April. They will not be ready in time for our summer offensive.
These people are disgusting. Trying to take advantage of elderly Americans to make THEIR BOMBS?!
I’ve been seeing “sponsored” posts on FB letting seniors know that it’s “not too late” to serve their country in the military. Maybe this is just a scam, but they may want non combatants to man the support groups to free up the younger ones for the dangerous stuff. Regrettably, I saw some positive responses to it from older citizens. I’m so ashamed of my fellow Boomers…
I wish I had a dime for every time someone was told that he/she would be serving their country/ defending freedom/keeping their country safe, when the real purpose has nothing to do with any of those things.
Do these “end of life” engineers have any remorse about creating death machines. They can’t die soon enough
So shooting down a an airplane that is dropping bombs on people inside their homes is somehow immoral?
They are not being picked up and hauled of to the factories-they NEEEEED money.
Hopefully at least some of the retirees will give a single finger answer to this summons.
Maybe some of these people NEED the money.
“Stinger’s been out of production for 20 years..”, Kremer said, “it would take at least 30 months for the first missiles to be completed due to the time it will take to restart production.”
wow the war should be over by then
Sure, that war. But if the earth is still in one piece, there will be a next war.
“Stinger’s been out of production for 20 years, and all of a sudden in the first 48 hours [of the war], it’s the star of the show and everybody wants more,” Wes Kremer, the president of Raytheon Missiles & Defense, said last week.
As he said while masturbating.
….Instead of Screwing his Wife…!
Raytheon Is yelling for the old and experienced to come back because their young are inexperienced and immature. Maybe the old wants to live long enough to enjoy the wealth they have accumulated all these years?
No one is forcing them to work.
You’ve posted this same comment at least 3 times here. But nobody here has suggested that anybody is trying to force retirees to work. Where are you going with this?
Cause I felt like it.
20 year old tech is not as effective today as it was when it was new and fancy.
You just need more and more as its utility diminishes.
Those retirees are making bank though.
A retirement check plus wages most likely higher than what they retired at has to be nice.
Let’s just hope the spouses aren’t going wild at the mall while their poor old guys work themselves to death back at that (efing) job they thought they left behind.
No one is forcing them to work.Maybe some need the money.
Force? Dangle enough money in front of anyone, especially a bigger paycheck than the one they were getting the last year they worked, and it is a no brainer to go back until you hate your job again.
Wow! The glasses of the bubbly are a clinking! Yahoo! $$$$$$$$$ pouring in like there was no tomorrow.
Sooie pig, sooie!
So… the warmeisters can’t hire the young, since perhaps they’re too wise for it? Gotta grab back our old geezers who helped us set this up in the first place!
Nope. The young haven’t been trained in hard core industrial arts because….. well, Chinese labor was cheaper.
As far as the “wise” youth? Neither the young or the old are particularly wise in Western countries. Else those countries wouldn’t be bombing and invading other countries.
The Pentagon called it an error when they decided that the proper cost of equipment drawn down by Presidential order should be the booked cost instead of replacement cost… even though there was never any doubt that much of the equipment would have to be replaced as soon as possible. Congress should not have let them get away with that.