[Tilted Irish Kilt]

Loss of your manufacturing base results in an inability to make your own defensive, or offensive weapons
remember the Japanese lack of materials , the imposed embargoes and tariffs that led up to the attack on Pearl Harbor ?
(ie.: rubber , petroleum , steel, etc)

[bert]

We have a major explosives manufacturing plant here, Holston Army ammunition Plant. It is now operated by BAE that developed much of the chemistry way back when

We ave not lost the ability to manufacture military explosives

Near by, there is a plant that still manufactures practice bombs.

Nearby there is a plant that makes uranium bullets

Near by there is a plant that makes nuclear fuel

[riverdawg]

“Loss of your manufacturing base results in an inability to make your own defensive, or offensive weapons”

I agree that there is a cogent argument to be made for not outsourcing the construction of aircraft carriers and other military weapons to foreign sources. But the example of the Chinese buying Segway in an earlier post hardly qualifies as a national-defense exception to free trade.