I was reading this wiki on Agent Orange and it appears the manufacturers took a real beating after the war via lawsuits by the soldiers and non-combatants.
If the US miltary came to a US manufacturer, and said “We want x amount of this unique chemical that only you produce to use with some of our weapons”. Assuming we aren’t under martial law rules, if the manufacturer decides that the risk involved in weaponizing his product is unacceptable, can they refuse to sell it to them, or is there some law compelling him to deliver goods & services to the military?
I don’t believe that they are required, but there are so many incentives to say yes (e.g., a big government contract) and so many disincentives to say “no” (e.g., no more big government contracts. Ever.), that it’s hard to turn it down.
I know that there are some cases where manufacturers can be forced to supply a certain product. My mother is a secretary for a machine shop. They do some work for military suppliers, which includes machining armored plates for a certain military vehicle (the Humvee’s replacement, whatever it’s called). If they can’t find a foundry that is currently making the required alloy, they can call up a foundry and give them a certain code. When this happens the foundry must, by law, start making that alloy when they’re done with their current batch of metal. To do otherwise will bring down some sort of governmental displeasure.
Unless you know some secret information, there is no Humvee replacement. Do you mean the Stryker? Not a replacement but a whole other class of vehicle.
Hmmmm, maybe some Secret info was just unintentionally leaked out?? Diceman if your mother is really working on some armor for a vehicle no one knows about, maybe you should request this thread be deleted.
I find it hard to believe that the government just compels private companies to provide products, unless there is some sort of contractual agreement in place (i.e. you’ve agreed to be a backup supplier in case of emergency, and part of that agreement is that you’ll pre-empt your normal production if necessary.)
Perhaps he means the metal used to upgrade the armour on regular Humvees. I had a hell of a time a couple of years ago getting a quote for a large autoclave because they couldn’t get the steel to make the pressure vessel.
That may be a condition of their government contract. At present, in the absence of a contract, it’s unlikely the government could compel private industry to do anything.
I know that here in New England many companies choose not to do business with the Federal Government under any circumstances because there are so many onerous record keeeping requirements and the penalty for breaking a requirement is so severe.
Seconded on this point. The last company I worked for (embedded PC technology) would not solicit and/or refuse business that would end up in a Federal Program. Too hard and expensive to work with, even if the Profit Margins are attractively high.
Now that I think about it, I suspect that there must be some sort of agreement like this in place. I mean, you can’t just call up a foundry and tell them to make something they’ve never seen before.
This is probably what it was. I know it had something to do with Humvees and replacing something. This all happened a year or two ago, so I’m probably just misremembering my mom’s comments.