XPost: alt.defense, alt.military, alt.politics.eu
XPost: alt.elections

https://www.politico.eu/article/saab-ceo-warns-against-reliance-china-make-weapons-europe/

While lead times and prices for some components have improved,
Johansson told POLITICO that the European defense industry still
faced “bottlenecks”, especially on “powder and nitrocellulose
to create powder”.

“The risk of China sort of disconnecting the deliveries
of nitrocellulose to do powder in Europe … would be
detrimental.”

Since the war in Ukraine started, Europe's defense companies
have been under pressure to produce more weapons and ammunition,
faster — both to support Kyiv and to bolster domestic defense.

. . .

Just GREAT ... fuckin' CHINA has cornered the nitrocellulose
market - THE prime ingredient needed for all kinds of mil
ammo. How'd THAT happen ???

Regular Joe stuff could, temporarily, go to olde-tyme
black powder - those 1800s big fat cartridges. But
GI JOE needs something a lot better.

Dunno what the NC cap of the USA might be, but I doubt
it'd supply the EU mil markets. Alas all the ACTION is
in Europe and middle-east at present ...

NC is one of those sneaky 'leverage points' - a small
low-tech under-the-radar item which, if withdrawn,
can have a hugely disproportional upstream effect.
Any new start-up NC maker, well, it'd involve not
only a repeatable process but LOTS of testing and
characterization of the product. Can't put Mystery
Powder into yer field howitzers or the big bang is
likely to be from the wrong end of the thing.

How many vital, consumable, defense-critical items
does the USA no longer make - but gets from China ?
Having your mil dependent on your ENEMIES is Bad,
Bad, BAD.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

XPost: alt.defense, alt.military, alt.politics.eu
XPost: alt.elections

68hx.1806 wrote on 4/19/2024 7:00 PM:

  Just GREAT ... fuckin' CHINA has cornered the nitrocellulose
  market - THE prime ingredient needed for all kinds of mil
  ammo. How'd THAT happen ???

China invented gunpowder, remember?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_gunpowder

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

XPost: alt.defense, alt.military, alt.politics.eu
XPost: alt.elections

On 4/19/24 7:52 PM, Michael McLean wrote:

68hx.1806 wrote on 4/19/2024 7:00 PM:

  Just GREAT ... fuckin' CHINA has cornered the nitrocellulose
  market - THE prime ingredient needed for all kinds of mil
  ammo. How'd THAT happen ???

China invented gunpowder, remember?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_gunpowder

But only the stinky black kind :-)

NC has been around for a rather long time - the
1830s fer sure. Took about 50 years to be developed
into a reliable "gunpowder" though.

BUT, as said, if the Swedes or others decide to
replace the Chinese supply line - and SHOULD -
it's gonna TAKE AWHILE to get production/consistency
up to snuff and then any gunpowders developed need
a battery of tests. In short there's no short-term
fix. Sweden/NATO has what it has and then it could
be ALL GONE real quick if there are a spate of
border wars and such.

The modern paradigm is "spray & pray" which uses
up ammo very quickly. The concept of deliberate
AIMED fire seems alien these days. The last time
anyone thought that way ... well, consider the
SKS, M-1 and FN-49 with their limited mags. Even
a medium artillery shell uses up more powder than
a whole case of rifle ammo.

Control of NC is *control* for an enemy. While the
big rockets and bombs get all the press in Ukraine,
MOST of the war is still being done with small arms,
squads of soldiers -vs- squads of soldiers.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)