Report says Department of Defense May Consider US Auto Industry 'Irrelevant' to National Security;
Honda and Toyota may become full-fledged American companies; RAF No. 617 Squadron 'Dam Buster' Raid of 60 years ago noted
DETROIT, June 9 -- eMOTION! REPORTS.com (www.emotionreports.com) an automotive and aerospace industries research and analysis site targeting professionals within the academic, media, corporate and government sectors, has just gone live with a potentially provocative analysis sure to garner responses from all concerned.
The analysis "Super-Globalism: Strategies For Maintaining a Robust Industrial Base Through Technological, Policy and Process Improvement," is rich in content and blunt in assessment.
"'Super-Globalism' makes no pretense about being balanced and fair," says Publisher Myron D. Stokes. "It is simply a presentation of the facts, assessments, conclusions and analyses as we understand them to be, and it concerns the two largest industries in the world, automotive and aerospace. What we make clear, hopefully, is that the US is in an economic war. And unfortunately, one that it's losing at the hands of European and Asian counterparts. Specifically, Toyota, Honda, and AIRBUS Industrie. These three are poised for leadership.
"The industries most affected by this war are the two most important sectors in the world, and controlled almost since their inception a century ago by US-based firms, namely General Motors, Ford, Chrysler and Boeing."
Stokes, a former Newsweek, Newsweek International and Newsweek Japan industry correspondent, says the analysis makes six main points:
1. That US companies plot global strategies based on assumption of
political and economic stability within a given region or hemisphere.
If a country destabilizes -- thus endangering personnel -- the
President is expected to "send in the Marines."
2. That some of these same companies do not see themselves as being part
of the national security mechanism.
3. That Wall Street should be taken to task for allowing so-called
"market forces" to artificially depress the share value of Ford Motor
Company, thus rendering it vulnerable to take over.
4. That the Department of Defense, according to sources, considers the
US auto industry "irrelevant" owing to administrative apathy, steadily
eroding marketshare and the continuous movement of manufacturing
operations off-shore.
5. Possible conclusions by the DoD, again according to sources, that
Japanese corporations -- Toyota and Honda in particular -- doing
business here seem to be more cognizant of the need to sustain the US
industrial base than GM or Ford.
6. That the DoD is already taking steps to assign Toyota and Honda status
as full-fledged components of the country's industrial base through
perhaps a quasi-Americanization arrangement. Effectively making them
part of a new industrial core.
According to Dennis Virag, President of The Automotive Consulting Group (www.autoconsulting.com) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, a firm responsible for key production and financial data (Automotive Supplier Business Performance Trends: Lessons to Be Learned) contained within the report, GM and Ford "...Have dictated that at least 10 percent of their production would come from China-based manufacturing facilities." It should strike them as odd, he notes, "that neither Toyota or Honda are following suit, and instead are concentrating on boosting production here."
A USSR-like Disintegration?
Pentagon consultant and Futurist Dr. Sheila Ronis, President of the Birmingham, Michigan, based University Group, and whose paper "Total Lifecycle Management: A Different Approach to War" was presented in the May issue of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers (SME) magazine Manufacturing Engineering, spoke recently at their annual conference in Detroit. She recalls a National Defense University/Pentagon presentation in 1997 wherein she warned that the former Soviet Union's economic and industrial meltdown should be viewed as a lesson learned. "Lacking economic security or a viable market based economy, the USSR disintegrated. It disintegrated rapidly, broadly, and precipitously. That disintegration created a new world order in which concern about regional challenges to national security replaced the global threats and counterbalances of the Cold War. ... Two questions, however, continue to nag at economic and national security planners despite the reduced tensions, advances in human rights and stability in many of the world's economies: Why did almost no one in the West foresee the Soviet Disintegration, and could similar chaos descend upon the United States by 2010 or 2015?"
Adding to the spectre of a possible reversal of fortune for the US as the reigning economic (and military) power, Stokes says, "Recent reports indicate that Toyota is now not only capable of acquiring GM, but Ford and DaimlerChrysler simultaneously. This appears to be a logical follow-on to an analysis presented by eMOTION! REPORTS.com last year, "Hyperintelligence" that discussed in detail Toyota's astounding intelligence gathering and system wide learning capability.
Covert Operation?
"In this vein, 'Super-Globalism' delves again into the realm of the covert through its discussion of data acquired 12 years ago outlining the tremendous technological lead held by Japan in the auto industry," said Stokes. "A tape -- apparently acquired directly from MITI offices -- containing several highly advanced engineering features, production ready, not prototypical, mind you, was presented as requested by its acquirers to GM, Ford and Chrysler representatives in 1991. Anyone doubting the validity of this report need look no further than Lexus RX-330 and Toyota's currently available hybrid technology."
A Nod to The Dam Busters and The GM President Who Became a 3-Star Lt.General
Amidst the report's analytical processes, it manages to weave in a brief and relevant discussion of the genius of British Prof. Dr. Barnes Wallis, inventor of the famed "Upkeep" spinning bomb that decimated the Moehne and Eder dams in the Ruhr industrial valley 60 years ago this month. Expertly piloted by the hand-picked crews of RAF No. 617 Squadron led by Wing Commander Guy Gibson, their Avro Lancaster bombers flew into history, the hearts of their countrymen and sparked imaginations everywhere.
There is also a historical review of former GM President (1937-40) William S. Knudsen, who accepted the offer of President Franklin Roosevelt to lead the country's industrial transformation for war. This was in the aftermath of Knudsen's interaction with Luftwaffe Chief Hermann Goering in 1938. This proved to be a pivotal point -- really -- in the annals of history.
Federal Programs
Stokes says that the analysis is not only presented on the site, but a PDF file of the document in its entirety can be downloaded. Further, it talks about Federal resources being brought to bear, such as the National Lab system, to shore up the technological edge of US firms. Additionally, programs that are demonstrative of "out-of-the-box" thinking by Federal agencies such as the US Air Force' CAMAA (Commercial Application of Military Airlift Aircraft) program are discussed.
Launched in 2001, eMOTION! REPORTS.com continues to function as a source and resource to media and academia. The site utilizes a dedicated server provided and managed through Seneca Communications, (www.senecacom.net) a firm currently producing advanced Voice-over IP (VOIP) communications solutions both here and abroad.