“We are pivoting the Pentagon and our industrial base to a wartime footing,” War Secretary Peter Hegseth announced last November. The capitalist rulers in the U.S. know that they are far from ready for the wars that are inevitable as the crisis of capitalism deepens. The sharpening conflict between Washington and Beijing underscores the challenge they face. To defend Washington’s weakened imperialist domination worldwide, they need to transform their preparedness for battle.
“The Trump administration is pushing for the biggest upgrade in decades to the nation’s fleet of noncombat ships in a bid to boost U.S. shipbuilding and strengthen America’s ability to prosecute wars overseas,” the Wall Street Journal said April 10.
As part of this, U.S. agencies from the Navy to the National Science Foundation are requesting more funds in the 2027 fiscal year budget for cargo ships, vehicle carriers, cutters and a research vessel. These “noncombat” ships being built can easily be used to carry ammunition, for war transportation and to refuel and rearm warships at sea.
The Navy’s request is a 46% increase over last year’s shipbuilding budget, including for 18 new combat vessels. This is still far below what the U.S. rulers know they will need.
As part of this drive, the government is pressing the owners of U.S. shipyards to modernize and expand their facilities.
For years, the Journal notes, Democratic and Republican party politicians alike have been warning about the aging U.S. fleet. Many Navy ships have been in use for 40 years or longer. This is in sharp contrast to China. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Beijing produced more commercial vessels, measured in tonnage, than the U.S. has built since the end of World War II. These vessels, however, are still far from a match for the firepower of the U.S. Navy.
The U.S. moves were a consequence of false conclusions the U.S. rulers drew from the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. They believed they had won the Cold War and reduced military spending.
Under Presidents George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton active-duty U.S. military forces fell from 2.2 million to 1.4 million. The naval fleet shrank from 454 ships in 1993 to 341 by 2000. They called it the “peace dividend.”
At the same time, they continued shifting manufacturing overseas, content to let others, especially China’s rulers, become the dominant industrial powerhouses, while American industry, much of it unionized with higher wages, was allowed to atrophy. Steel mills shuttered, auto plants were put in mothballs, coal mines closed.
The boss class is now moving to reverse this — a big project.
Early stages of retooling for war
Over the last several months War Department officials have held meetings with executives from General Motors, General Electric, Ford and machinery maker Oshkosh to push them to repurpose their factories.
These “early-stage discussions,” Business Today noted April 16, appear “to be assessing how quickly existing automotive production lines could be adapted for military use — ranging from transport vehicles to more complex defence systems.”
Business Today and the Journal point to the example of what the U.S. rulers did leading into the second imperialist world war, pushing U.S. industrial production to an all-time high. The program to transform U.S. industry to rapidly produce war material was euphemistically called the “Arsenal of Democracy.”
At its peak, Ford Motor Company’s Willow Run plant in Michigan was churning out one B-24 bomber every hour.
Today, crucial resources and products needed for war, motors, sensors, rare-earth metals and other key components are largely found or produced in China.
The U.S. rulers are looking to the Philippines, Indonesia, Angola and Mozambique to set up special “economic corridors” for war production.
On April 16 Washington signed a deal with the Philippine government to build an industrial zone on the island of Luzon. This would allow the U.S. to draw on nearby sources of nickel, copper, chromite and cobalt.
Manila agreed to give Washington unprecedented authority over the operation, providing a 4,000 acre site rent-free to the U.S. government. All activity there will come with diplomatic immunity, like what U.S. embassies receive, and be run under U.S., not Philippine, law — the first arrangement of its kind anywhere in the world. But it isn’t off the drawing board yet.
As part of this push, Hegseth directed the Pentagon to terminate union contracts for War Department employees April 9. Thousands of workers there belong to the American Federation of Government Employees. The U.S. rulers want to make sure there will be no union interference with their future war moves.
Added to these steps, Washington announced that starting in December, almost all men in the U.S. between 18 and 26 —including immigrants without “papers” — will be automatically registered for the military draft. The capitalist rulers need to be assured not only vibrant production of the weapons of war, but also the cannon fodder to defend their system of exploitation and oppression.