The big weakness is industrial capacity, but only China can exploit that at scale.

The issue is general industrial capacity, not missiles specifically.

First, those are short- to medium-range weapons.

Second, the USAF and USN hold most of the US's long-range precision weaponry, the only real exception being the Long-Range Hypersonic Weapon (LRHW), which is not yet fielded.

This is definitely not true. A base model unequipped ambulance may be in that ballpark. A fully equipped ambulance will vary wildly in cost based on clinical level but will be about $250-500k in the US.

> Then you have liability, both for the vehicle and for the medical treatment; that's about $12k per year.

Maybe for BLS or non-emergency ambulances in a low-utilisation role? For ALS/Critical Care or higher in a busy jurisdiction it's going to be significantly higher.

FWIW I think that HEMS cost is significantly under costed, as the London HEMS H135s run about £2,500 per flight hour on direct flight costs alone, so I suspect the £4,748 figure is referring to that alone.

I think a closer estimate is probably total annual operational costs divided by total shouts, (£18 MM / 2,000) or about £9,000 per shout.

Even that's an under costing, as the clinical personnel, equipment, and liability is shouldered by the NHS. A pure costing is probably closer to 2-3X that per clinical flight.

Still an order of magnitude less than the commercial US operators.

Okay, so why don't we see this behaviour more in other countries?

In my jurisdiction, the incentives are actually weighted towards pushing people to ambulances, as there is a €100 fee for self-referral to ED which is waived if you're transported, but while there are time wasters and frequent flyers, the service is actually less abused than US ambulances under EMTALA.

Gov.nl is just a domain owned by the Dutch Government, like gov.ie or belgium.be.

I wonder if anyone else has experienced this?

> PS A "curve-off" public welfare policy is far more effective than banning guns.

Roll eyes emoji.

Companies don't have morals, only people. Abdicating your moral responsibilities because you're employed is cowardice.

In most countries, but not in the US.