And even the domestic components have lead times measured in years. In an emergency, production could only be marginally accelerated no matter how much funding and manpower we put into it. That is the reality.
But any car factory isn't expected to produce fully formed F-35s. But they can produce many components for a F-35. And many factorys together can produce, for eg, a F-35.
You also wrote: "And even the domestic components have lead times measured in years. In an emergency, production could only be marginally accelerated no matter how much funding and manpower we put into it. That is the reality." That's exactly the problem that the report and blog post address. It is the reality now, because of the defense industry being more about financial engineering than actual engineering. And that is a big problem for the US. It doesn't have to be that way.
even if you were to start a new company to build nuclear subs (for example) today, you are probably looking at a decade or more until you can produce something