They are selling them to other countries as surplus.
They have been doing this for years.
Originally Posted by Gotyour6
From the article:
The Lima plant is a study in how federal dollars affect local communities, which in turn hold tight to the federal dollars. The facility is owned by the federal government but operated by the land systems division of General Dynamics, a major defense contractor that spent close to $11 million last year on lobbying, according to the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.
WOW, does that smell of socialism!!
Again, From the article:
Current foreign customers are Saudi Arabia, which is getting about five tanks a month, and Egypt, which is getting four. Each country pays all of their own costs. That's a "success story during a period of economic pain," Keating said.
Not only are we subsidizing the economy of Lima, OH, but also of or (dubious?) friends in the middle east.
So they are not selling them as surplus as you stated. I'm not sure what the term " each country pays all of there own cost" exactly means, but given that we are already heavily subsidizing this " industry" should we be selling them at a profit ? is that what capitalists try to do?
The surplus you talk about is typically sold off at .10 on the dollar to arms brokers and more often than not ends up in the hands of our enemies. So we give our technology, though usually outdated, but still valuable in the some parts of the world,at a huge loss to only make our Defense job harder. BRILLIANT!!