[Edit/PS] This serves as a cautionary tale against neglecting Industrial Arts Education.
https://ia800104.us.archive.org/20/items/FoundationsOfMechan...
Moore does not, and sadly cannot, make these machines anymore.
But you're right, the article specifies that it's computer controlled, so probably not a #3.
It's not appropriate to send a bunch of scientific instrument builders on a major project when you can just buy it.
Notice also that tools like these made in China exist, but that they still wanted this US tool. Perhaps they already have many of the same model, or it's actually special.
Finally, China manufactures a ballpoint pen all by itself - https://wapo.st/3ySmwlG
And when you get into it...
> The tip of a ballpoint pen is what makes it a ballpoint pen. At the tip, a freely rotating ball is held in a small socket which connects it to an ink reservoir that allows the pen to write or draw lines. Manufacturing a ballpoint pen tip that can write comfortably for a long period of time requires high-precision machinery and precisely thin steel, but for years China was unable to match those crafted by foreign companies.
It isn't unreasonable to believe that there are other, more specialized tools, that have similar difficulties in manufacturing without the proper equipment and expertise. Some of them are just not common enough to dedicate significant resources to try to build inhouse.
(and after pulling that up, I see that a recent cousin comment in another thread brings the same article and point)
In the middle of fighting a war no less, time is a factor.
Basically. Especially relevant for the ballpoint pen anecdote which wasn't about how hard it was to make ball point tips, but some products were not economically worth pursuing over existing off the shelf solutions, but STILL important to develop indigenously due to gaining knowledge/capabilities that knockon/support ther strategic / critical sectors. The TLDR is Premier LiKeQiang politicized importance of precision manufacturing for national security, using rough PRC ball-point tips quality as example, and 2 years later PRC industry developed tungsten carbide manufacturing capabilities for advanced munitions. There was no economically sensible reason for domestic ballpoint tip manufacturing, the entire market dominated by Japanese and Swiss was only worth 20M. Zero rationale for Chinese industry to coordinate tons of resources for this project outside of national security.
An related apocryphal annedote I read was the steel for tips made in JP/CHE were made in small batches (because tips are tiny), ditto with early half assed PRC efforts. But for ball point pen project, a state steelwork (high volume, billion dollar operation) had to stop the lines to make an industrial sized batch with correct metallurgy at a financial loss. 100+ billion of domestic PRC ballpoint tips made in the past 5 years have barely chipped away at that batch.
you can work backwards and determine the core components of a detonation.
or you can make very precise wave guides or very spherical objects to make your own detonation.
If you dig a bit you'll find it's the case for a lot of things. Outsourcing production to Asia&co completely wiped entire industries, the knowledge is gone after one or two generations. Once the infrastructure and the knowledge are gone it's game over, you have to start from scratch again
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToagLbv0140
He says they're mopeds with wings, and a third rate US factory could churn them out, but Russia can't build them.
IIRC, the issue wasn't so much that the couldn't make them, but the ones that they could make were clearly inferior.
According to this, it seems like the problem was more one of metallurgy: https://fortune.com/2017/01/10/china-ballpoint-pens-steel-ja...
Who is he to make a technical evaluation of drone quality? Americans are very biased to assume everything made by anyone besides their first-world allies is crap, and IMHO that kind of thinking will be their undoing.
Russia is adapting to sudden supply chain constraints it was obviously unprepared for, and Iran almost certainly has a lot more experience dealing with (and working around) them. Russia could have all the skill in the world, but they won't be able to build anything if they can't source some critical part for their existing designs. If Iran has the parts for their designs, they can build.
If you use a 500k missile to shoot down a 20k drone, that is a win for the drone operator. If you don't shoot it down and it severely damages a 10m power plant, that is also a win for the drone operator. The aircraft vs air defense arms race in the past couple of decades has been towards more capable (and thus more expensive) platforms on both sides, leaving room for this kind of cheap drone on the bottom of the market. There are plenty of systems that can cost-effectively engage drones though, from old-style flak guns to other cheap drones to (in the future) lasers. It is only a matter of time before the West finds proper countermeasures.
The Germans found no counter measures for tanks in WWI and neither did the French in WWII. The only viable counter to tanks between 1915 and 1955 were more tanks as the USSR and US showed.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bazooka
Molotov cocktail? "the time-honored anti-tank weapon of last resort."
https://www.thearmorylife.com/molotov-cocktail-vs-tank-a-his...
And, ultimate, the reason you have to keep your opponent from gaining air superiority (if not gain it yourself) to operate tanks effectively: CAS aircraft.
In WWII French tanks were generally superior to German tanks, it was in fact the Germans who found the effective counter measure - combined arms.
Anti-tank guns and especially shaped charge warheads rendered tanks without proper infantry support all but useless.
Something like the https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flakpanzer_Gepard would be an absolute beast against simple drones, but according to the wiki the Ukrainians only have about 30 of them and they are limited to ~5 km range. They would need a lot more, which would take some time to acquire. Then again you could dispense with the tracked undercarriage for defending static objects like power plants, so just getting the guns would be enough.
What they can import is heavily restricted; there was another article that said the chips they import now are grey market, lower grade stuff with a much higher failure rate. You can't even make a moped with wings if your chips don't even work. I guess you could make dumb drones but what's the point if they're less accurate than WW2 V1 / V2 ?
(I recall a Chinese company buying up all the stock of automated CNC machines for YEARS to meet Apple's demand for the macbook and iphone when they were all aluminium. Not as precise as these though).