Chapter 317: Chapter 317 A Military Materials Sales Company

Major General Williams was immediately delighted. "Since you're taking them all, that saves me from selling them off bit by bit. So, I'll throw in all the spare parts for these vehicles." Sёarᴄh the nôvelFire.net website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.

He then leaned closer to Hardy and lowered his voice. "Don't worry, you won't lose out. I'll give you five times the standard spare parts for each vehicle, and I'll throw in some non standard parts too. Those parts would only rust if left sitting around anyway."

The two returned to Major General Williams office. The general pointed to a tall stack of documents on the desk. "These materials are all inventories of supplies. What we just saw is only a portion."

As he spoke, he casually pulled out a pile and opened it on the desk. Hardy saw that there were photos inside, one of which was of a cargo ship.

"This is a Liberty ship, with a load capacity of 7,000 tons. During the war, more than 2,700 were produced. Only a portion is needed now, most are no longer used and are just sitting idle at the ports."

"And these Victory ships, with a load capacity of 15,000 tons, over 500 were produced, and many are no longer needed either."

"Now all of these are about to be disposed of."

"There are also many warships. I've contacted many countries to see if they want them. Of course, some countries can't buy them, and the countries that can don't have the money. It's really frustrating."

"But if we don't sell them, they can only sit there. The maintenance costs are too high, and they will slowly deteriorate. The final outcome will be dismantling them for scrap metal."

"What's even more troublesome are the planes. Do you know how many there are? Over a hundred thousand. Most of them are no longer useful and are just sitting in the desert. Moreover, there are too few pieces in the planes. that even disassembling and scraping them doesn't bring in much money, and it's a hassle."

"If all these things are left sitting around, the annual maintenance costs alone would be $50-60 million. The federal government officials don't want to pay that maintenance bill, so they have no choice but to dispose of them. Do you know what they said? Even giving them away for free is better than letting them sit around and consume funds every year."

During World War II, the United States ramped up production to full capacity, manufacturing 300,000 aircraft of various types, over 2 million vehicles, more than 100,000 tanks, thousands of cruisers, destroyers, and frigates, tens of thousands of landing craft, and 99 aircraft carriers.

Additionally, an incalculable amount of logistical supplies was produced, with U.S. military production exceeding the combined output of all other nations.

The victory in World War II was essentially bought with money.

After the war, these weapons and ships became obsolete. The military downsized from over ten million personnel to just over one million, leaving behind a massive surplus of material.

Some argued that these resources could be stored for future use, but maintaining these weapons in operational condition would require substantial upkeep, costing $40-50 million annually a significant burden on the defense budget.

A more practical concern was that if these military assets weren't dealt with, defense contractors wouldn't be able to secure new orders, and without orders, they couldn't make money.

With the war over, military contracts had already shrunk significantly, reducing profits for defense companies. If this stagnation continued, these companies, which were controlled by major financial groups, would not stand for it.

It's important to understand that these major financial groups wield enormous influence in Washington.

These financial groups would not tolerate their companies losing money. They didn't care where the military's excess materials went, they only cared about how many new orders the military could place, ensuring they made a profit.

Whether the materials were given away or dumped into the sea didn't matter, as long as there were new orders.

The White House signed an order directing the military to handle these surplus materials. With the deep connections between military leaders and defense contractors, they were naturally willing to comply, quickly establishing the "War Assets Administration" to manage the post war surplus."

Williams was put in charge of handling this.

In later years, the U.S. military did indeed handle these materials by selling what could be sold, scrapping what couldn't, using ships as target practice, or even sinking many directly into the ocean.

To Hardy, these materials represented a goldmine.

During a recent conversation, General Williams told Hardy that the production of these post war materials had cost over $30 billion. Even if they were sold at a tenth of their original price, it would still bring in over $3 billion.

Many of these items were being sold for scrap value, and even at that price, they were profitable. Moreover, some of the items had significant value, representing a huge profit margin.

"General, how did you originally plan to deal with these materials?" Hardy asked.

"I had my former assistant set up a sales team to handle this business, trying to sell the items both domestically and abroad. As long as it didn't violate any bans, we sold to whoever would buy."

"And how's that going?" Hardy inquired.

General Williams spread his hands, "We've sold off some of the more desirable items, like jeeps and trucks, but the rest are still piling up in warehouses. It's been six months, and they've only sold about $20 million worth. At this rate, it'll take decades to sell everything."

On the plane, Hardy had already considered various plans. After fully understanding the situation upon arrival, his ideas became even more comprehensive.

"General, I have a proposal."

"Go ahead."

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General Williams looked at Hardy intently.

"I have two options: one is to purchase some of the materials I want. The other is to establish a sales company specifically to help the military sell these materials, including both logistical supplies and weapons. Of course, you can specify in advance what cannot be sold."