Comment:  Wartime surge is a huge topic and greatly helped win WWII. It is needed again. Northrop comments and a DAU article help explain all of this.  My first contracting assignment after missiles was with the GOCO's Contracting Office at WPAFB.  Government factories run by contractors left over from WWII and Korean War was now supporting the Vietnam War.  These were called the Air Force Plants and were a part of the Defense Industrial Base:  Very exciting time.  One of the more famous ones is Plant 42.  Aerial photo from 1953 done by the Department of the Army Corps of Engineers.

Plant 42 and the B-21:  https://www.airandspaceforces.com/b21-first-flight/

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https://www.airandspaceforces.com/northrop-industry-surge-capacity/

Northrop Exec: Industry Can Create Surge Capacity—
If It’s in Contracts

June 24, 2025 | By John A. Tirpak

"Manufacturing of complex systems at surge levels is possible if industry is paid to do it,
the head of Northrop Grumman's aeronautics sector said."

Quote:

The Pentagon can get the weapons production surge capacity it wants, but it has to be willing to pay companies to create it, according to a top executive with Northrop Grumman, which builds the B-21 bomber.

Tom Jones, Northrop Grumman’s corporate vice president and president of the company’s aeronautics sector, said the Pentagon has to make any surge capacity requirement an allowable cost on contracts. Lacking that compensation, it would be hard to justify, he said June 24 at a Center for a New American Security panel on the future of the defense industrial base.

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https://www.dau.edu/sites/default/files/2024-08/Suits_SeptOct2024.pdf

"GOCO: EXPAND GOVERNMENT-OWNED, CONTRACTOR-OPERATED INDUSTRY"

by LT. COL. ERIC SUITS, USAF

Quote:

The conflicts in Ukraine and Israel have highlighted what defense industrial experts have feared for years—the U.S. Defense Industrial Base (DIB) has been unable to surge wartime materiel production to meet demand requirements. This primarily is due to industry’s inability to make the capital investments necessary to create production capacity beyond the DoD’s contractual demand signal.

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https://www.militarymuseum.org/AFPlant42.html

"Historic California Posts:Air Force Plant 42, Palmdale(Palmdale Army Air Field)"

Quote:

Current projects include design, engineering, pre-production, production, modification, flight testing, servicing and repair mission related activities to the following:

B-2 Spirit
F-22 Raptor
F-35 Lightning II (JSF)
U-2
Boeing B-52 Stratofortress
RQ-4 Global Hawk
MQ-4C Triton
SOFIA (Stratospheric Observatory for infrared Astronomy) - NASA 747SP

Quote:

History 

Air Force Plant 42 is at Palmdale, CA, north of Pasadena in Los Angeles County. It is operated by Lockheed, Rockwell International, Northrop, and Nero. AFP 42 is located in the northeastern portion of Los Angeles County, California, within the Antelope Valley of the Mojave Desert, approximately 80 miles north of Los Angeles. It has over 6,600 acres (the government owns 85%) and includes approximately 4.2 million square feet of floor space (the government owns 45%). The site includes multiple high bay buildings and airfield access with flyaway capability. The facility also has one of the heaviest load-bearing runways in the world.