Personally, I think the R&D times of planes and other mainstream gear takes so long, is because there isn’t genuine necessity. First and foremost, the MiC exists to enrich elite critters - actual defense of the nation is tertiary. The secondary is just to make fancy gear that looks neat for battle glamour, but lacks substance for warfare.
I suspect an actual peer-to-peer war between NATO and Dogey America would result in much faster development time. Also many failures, but necessity would force rethinking on how to produce weapons. I listen to many videos about plane development, and WW2 really stood out in how many fails there were, while the envelope constantly got pushed.
My prediction is that Europe would be much better than America when it comes to transitioning into a true war economy, because they have a less corrupted MiC to get in the way.
Personally, I think the R&D times of planes and other mainstream gear takes so long, is because there isn’t genuine necessity. First and foremost, the MiC exists to enrich elite critters - actual defense of the nation is tertiary. The secondary is just to make fancy gear that looks neat for battle glamour, but lacks substance for warfare.
I suspect an actual peer-to-peer war between NATO and Dogey America would result in much faster development time. Also many failures, but necessity would force rethinking on how to produce weapons. I listen to many videos about plane development, and WW2 really stood out in how many fails there were, while the envelope constantly got pushed.
My prediction is that Europe would be much better than America when it comes to transitioning into a true war economy, because they have a less corrupted MiC to get in the way.