Missile Scientists in Short Supply at Pentagon

[AGENDA21]

The report does not give specifics on the number of experts who are retiring or the numbers needed to replace them, but it says about 20,000 research and development scientists and engineers work in the aerospace industry as a whole, down from more than 140,000 in the mid-1980s.

The Pentagon risks running out of scientists to operate and upgrade the nation's arsenal of intercontinental nuclear and conventional missiles, according to a report released this week by the Defense Science Board.

As the nation's veteran engineers and scientists retire, the military will lose much of its expertise in long-range missile technology, the report says. That means the Air Force and Navy, which operate most of the 1960s-vintage missiles, will be unable to cope with system failures or develop improved weapons, the report says.

Not only are fewer American engineers and scientists choosing to work on missile technology, there are fewer of them altogether, the report says. Each year, about 70,000 Americans receive undergraduate and graduate science and engineering degrees that are defense related, compared with a combined 200,000 in China and India, the report says.

http://www.newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=12100586U7CC

[BeyondThePale]

1. What about faith-based technicians!

Soon there will be no scientists in the USA!

[HysteryDiagnosis]

2. They have lots of them in India and China... what's the worry?? n/t

[RC]

3. Do we really need all that missile technology?

The correct answer is NO!. However, we do need the smarts of those guys for other things, such as research in the coming energy shortage and what can be done about lack of oil and global warming.
The coming climate change and shifting of what will grow where is going to cause mass starvation in our way over populated world.

[Dogmudgeon]

4. The Free Market System will save them!

I haven't had full-time computer work in five years, but at least I derive satisfaction knowing that the money being poured into overseas job sites will make the rich even richer, so they can invest in McDonalds' and Wendys', where I can work if and when my uninsured, untreated, injured feet and ear either spontaneously heal themselves -- or I give up my libbrul lack of religion and let Jeebus do it.

--p!
How's THAT for a run-on sentence?

[rfranklin]

5. Hey, it's not rocket science!...uh....never mind...

Well, we can always outsource the jobs to China!