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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Ilaine who wrote (71648)	2/7/2003 2:15:17 AM
From: Bilow	Respond to of 281500

Hi CobaltBlue; Re: "Maybe Iraqis just manufacture their conventional weapons to a higher standard than we do, but I don't think so." It's typical of mediocre engineers to specify parts to higher standards than what is actually needed. Figuring out how sloppy a manufacturing process can be and still result in a satisfaction of the design requirements is a difficult thing, the sort of thing that the United States, in particular, specializes in. If one were beginning a project, and didn't want to have to deal with failure (i.e. you get shot for screwing up), one might be inclined to overspecify tolerances a bit. Re: "What we notice in these different batches is a progression to higher and higher levels of specification, including, in the latest batch, an anodized coating on extremely smooth inner and outer surfaces." It's standard practice for manufacturing companies in the West to improve their processes as time goes on, and this quite naturally results in improved quality in later production. -- Carl P.S. One of the more famous incidents of excessive military specifications has to do with the counterweights used in certain ICBM missile silos. Despite being fairly simple weights (used to help open the doors), the huge pieces of steel were specified, and machined to 1 mil accuracy. Or at least that was the rumor.