Tag: defense

Defending the Backbone: Why America Must Protect Its Independent Tier 2 Aerospace Suppliers

People often ask me why I’ve chosen to stay involved with CTL Aerospace, especially during a time when the company is facing significant challenges. The truth is, I could be doing a lot of other things—more lucrative work of a much higher profile, more socially visible roles, or ventures with less resistance.  As someone told me this past week, I’m too talented to waste my key income years on hopeless crusades.  But I don’t measure value in dollars alone. I measure it in independence, in impact, and in the preservation of something uniquely American: privately held ownership. CTL Aerospace in West Chester, Ohio is a Tier 2 supplier, and that position in the supply chain is not just operational—it’s strategic. It’s where innovation meets execution, and where long-term thinking still matters. In an industry increasingly dominated by public ownership and institutional investors, CTL represents a rare and vital piece of our national infrastructure that still answers to its owners, not to shareholders chasing quarterly returns.

My involvement is rooted in a belief that private ownership is essential to the health of American aerospace and defense. When companies go public or fall into the hands of investment firms, they often lose their soul. Decisions get made by boards, not builders. Products get rushed to market, not refined through years of R&D. And the personal accountability that comes from direct ownership disappears. In aerospace, where development cycles span decades and reliability is non-negotiable, this shift is dangerous. You can’t trade supply chain integrity like a stock. You can’t outsource stewardship. And you certainly can’t afford to lose the kind of long-term commitment that privately held companies bring to the table. That’s why I fight for Tier 2 suppliers—because it’s where the real work happens, and where the future of American capability is quietly being decided.

This isn’t just about CTL. It’s about a broader economic trend that’s squeezing out private owners across industries—from aerospace to agriculture. Just like family farms are taxed out of existence and sold off to developers, small and mid-sized manufacturers are being pressured to sell to conglomerates and investment firms. The result is a loss of continuity, a dilution of expertise, and a breakdown in the relationships that make supply chains resilient. When you call a privately owned company, you talk to someone who knows your name, your order, and your expectations. When you call a publicly traded one, you get an intern while the investors are off playing golf. That erosion of personal investment is a catastrophe for our market economy. So when people ask me why I associate myself with CTL Aerospace, I tell them it’s because this fight—this defense of Tier 2 suppliers—is one of the most important stories in America today. It’s about protecting the kind of ownership that built this country, and ensuring it still has a place in the industries that will define our future.

In the shadows of America’s aerospace resurgence lies a quiet but critical battle—one that could determine the future of our industrial independence, national security, and economic resilience. At the heart of this fight are the Tier 2 suppliers: the specialized, often family-owned or privately held companies that manufacture the complex, high-precision components essential to modern flight. These firms are now under siege—not by foreign competitors, but by a coordinated squeeze from financial institutions and private equity firms seeking to consolidate, control, and commoditize a sector that was never meant to be run like a hedge fund.

The Strategic Role of Tier 2s

Tier 2 suppliers like CTL Aerospace in West Chester, Ohio are the connective tissue of the aerospace supply chain. They produce composite nacelles, thrust reversers, engine components, and structural assemblies that Tier 1s and OEMs depend on to meet FAA certification standards and delivery schedules. These are not interchangeable parts. They require decades of engineering expertise, proprietary tooling, and a workforce trained in the art of precision manufacturing.

With the FAA mandating lighter, more fuel-efficient aircraft, the demand for advanced composites has surged. Programs like the GE9X and LEAP engines require vast quantities of carbon fiber sandwich structures—components that only a handful of Tier 2s can produce at scale. Yet, despite their strategic importance, these firms are vanishing.

A Shrinking Ecosystem

According to Deloitte and other industry outlooks, independent Tier 2 suppliers now make up less than 15–20% of the mid-tier aerospace pool—a dramatic decline from a decade ago. The rest have been acquired, merged, or shuttered under pressure from banks and consolidators. The pandemic accelerated this trend, exposing the fragility of just-in-time supply chains and the vulnerability of undercapitalized firms.

Private equity firms like Arcline, AE Industrial, and others—have seized on this moment. M&A activity in aerospace surged from $218 billion in 2024 to projections of $382 billion by 2030, with a disproportionate focus on Tier 2s. Their strategy is clear: acquire specialized suppliers, vertically integrate them into larger portfolios, and feed the Boeing and Airbus backlog without the regulatory headaches of organic growth.

The Financial Squeeze Play

The playbook is ruthless but effective. Financial institutions—Wells Fargo among them—tighten liquidity through covenant manipulation, triggering technical defaults or cash flow crises. This artificially depresses the company’s market value, making it ripe for acquisition. Once the target is weakened, PE firms swoop in with lowball offers, often backed by the very banks that created the distress.

Why This Matters to America

This is not just a business story. It’s a national security issue. The United States cannot afford to lose its independent manufacturing base—not when global tensions are rising, supply chains are under strain, and aerospace remains one of our last great industrial strongholds.

If Tier 2s are absorbed into opaque financial structures, we lose visibility, agility, and control. We risk turning our aerospace sector into a brittle, over-leveraged system where decisions are made in boardrooms, not shop floors. The ability to respond to military needs, commercial surges, or technological shifts will be compromised.

A Path Forward: Defense Through Independence

The solution is not to resist change, but to reassert control. Independent Tier 2s must:

  • Form strategic alliances with OEMs or Tier 1s that respect their autonomy.
  • Pursue minority investments from family offices, aerospace-focused VCs, or patriotic capital sources that don’t demand board control.
  • Implement governance defenses like staggered boards or poison pills to deter hostile takeovers.
  • Audit and challenge predatory lending practices, potentially invoking antitrust or shareholder protections.

The Optimistic Case

Despite the pressure, there is reason for hope. The scarcity of capable Tier 2s makes them more valuable than ever. OEMs are desperate for reliable partners who can scale without compromising quality. Investors are beginning to recognize that long-term value lies not in flipping assets, but in building enduring capabilities.

If we can hold the line—if we can resist the short-termism of Wall Street and the opportunism of consolidation—we can emerge stronger. We can preserve the independence, innovation, and integrity that made American aerospace the envy of the world.

A Call to Action

To policymakers, regulators, and industry leaders: this is your moment. Protect the Tier 2s. Investigate the lending practices that are hollowing out our industrial base. Support capital structures that reward stewardship, not speculation.

To investors: look beyond the spreadsheet. Understand the strategic value of independence in a world where resilience is the new ROI.

To our peers in the industry: stand together. Share intelligence, form coalitions, and defend the middle tier. The future of aerospace depends on it.

Rich Hoffman

Click Here to Protect Yourself with Second Call Defense https://www.secondcalldefense.org/?affiliate=20707

Beating the Bad Guys: The members of the “A Team” continue to have success, and for good reason

I was having a bad day, as some days sometimes go and I received a very nice text from a friend who showed me a photo of her sister reading my book in her backyard.  I really appreciated it, and it didn’t take long to smooth out that bad day into what I often say, wrestling alligators and making boots out of them.  But at a time when things were pretty tough, it was nice to see someone send me something that was positive.  I appreciated the gesture.  And it also reminded me of what I had done a year prior with that book and how significant it has been to improving the world in ways that aren’t typically measured.  Around August and September of 2021, I had given out 100 copies of my book, The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business to those I considered part of the “A Team,” various members in politics, business leaders, legal people, and in the trench freedom fighters I thought had a chance to do good things, and wanted to.  I couldn’t give books to everyone I knew, but I did to those who showed the most promise of doing big things on a war front that the mainstream news was ignoring.  While they wanted us to look at everything but what was important, I had been pointing out with greater frequency that real fight that we are all involved in, and I knew I needed to do something to help facilitate that effort in our war time epic that we are living through presently. 

Prior to the book coming out in August of 2021 I was pulling into the parking lot of the World’s Largest Truck Stop in Iowa when I received a call from another very good friend, a VIP known statewide.  He was upset that I had changed the name of my blog site from Overmanwarrior’s Wisdom, to The Gunfighter’s Guide.  For over a decade he had come to rely on my blog site for the kind of news that he couldn’t get anywhere else, and he wasn’t happy with the name change.  I explained to him that we were in a different world now.  I felt that there was a real need to provide people with a guide to fight and defend themselves in this increasingly hostile world, a world that desired to commit election fraud to remove a president, a world that was clearly fine with committing treason against the United States of America and to sell away all our assets to syndicates of global criminal enterprise.  And a world that would French kiss evil happily then spit in our face and call us the bad guys.  A lot of people were lost in how to deal with those elements and I had a background that had some strategy that might help them, so I was planning to focus my intentions on doing just that.  He seemed somewhat satisfied with that answer, even if he protested the change.  But now, a year later, what I was up to has been quite clear and I am happy to report that the world is moving in the right direction.

For instance, one of those copies of the book I gave to the controversial Venessa Wells from Lakota schools.  I saw her as a bright new voice in the fight for constitutional preservation and thought she might make good use of it.  But I didn’t give a book to the Lakota school board president Lynda O’Conner.  Even though she and I were attached at the hip at that time, I felt she was just using me to gain power on the school board and to become its president.  I didn’t care because if she gained power, then there would be a 3 to 2 vote against another levy on the ballot, so it was a mutual relationship kind of thing.  But I didn’t see her as someone who would make use of the strategies outlined in my book.  But Venessa was.  Its one thing to talk about the news, as I had been doing on my blog site for years.  Its quite another to come up with unique strategies that could heavily leverage wins to those who follow the outlines of my book.  And that was what was needed.  I often talk about the paralysis that most people have when confronted with evil.  Most of society suffers from this condition.  And those who aren’t afraid to fight often feel the system is so against them that they can be identified and destroyed once they are singled out.  So they often find themselves running from the bad guys instead of fighting them.  That was what had to change which I had to explain to my VIP friend.  I was talking to someone just a few days ago who felt they were targeted to be killed, and they felt they only had a short time to live to do some of the good whistleblowing work that needed to be done, before they were killed.  In my personal background, not only do I have a long history with Lean techniques, and all kinds of business improvement techniques and psychological analysis, but I have a background with various mobs and criminal elements.  I have known very well various judges and hit people, so I know the underbelly of society thoroughly.  And I don’t want people to feel that they will be killed just for doing the right things in life.  That’s why I wrote the book, to help those people feel they can do their work, and not worry about such things. 

A year later, after giving out those 100 books, and then the many others who have bought the book for themselves and made good use of it, there have been some very good victories against detrimental odds that now show a path to success, just as I knew it would.  But sharing that with others isn’t so easy.  People get inundated by information coming at them from all sorts of directions.  But the track record is unmistakable and it makes me happy to see.  I appreciate all the great feedback, but more than that, I enjoy more seeing people win at life, at whatever they are trying to do.  On the freedom movement side, if they win, then I’m happy.  But in business too.  It’s a hostile world out there and people need some way to get an advantage.  And if the concepts in The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business are followed in regard to international trade and intercontinental relationships entire nations could be brought down, such as China, or groups of hostile nations such as the Desecrators of Davos.  They are much weaker and more vulnerable than many think they are, they aren’t so scary, if you know how to beat them.  And that was the point of The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business all along, and why I changed the name to my blog site, to help people learn how to beat those scary forces out there that want to control the world, whether its locally, statewide, nationwide, or internationally.  There is no reason to be scared, or powerless in this world.  If you know how to beat the bad guys, in whatever field, then I want to see people free to do so.  Good people should never worry about being killed or destroyed for doing the right thing.  And after a year of strategy outlined in that book, the track record is obvious, and there are many more victories to enjoy before its all said and done.

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business

Transvestites in the American Military: Why the Second Amendment is more important than a government-run organization

At this point, it should be obvious that the woke policies that have come to Americans through their corporations, border policy, environmental rules and regulations, and especially the military have all been part of the attack by our enemies. And yes, we do have enemies; the ideas of globalism where America would be in charge of the Liberal World Order was always a fantasy designed to lure stupid people to the cause of America’s antagonists. Laura Ingraham actually did a good piece on this exact issue a few days ago when she reflected back on what we all think of our military in the kinds of recruitment ads that we remember from the 80s and 90s, the “be all that you can be” ads that were very catchy, and very popular. No, we don’t have that military anymore. We have woke generals who like to dress up in skirts on the weekends. Who has as priorities all the same ESG priorities that our corporations are mired down with. They consider diversity conditions far more critical than crushing the enemy at the gates of aggression. And we are all being told to like it, or else. Or else, what? It’s time to admit to ourselves that we no longer have control of our military, it has been captured by the progressive priorities of the United Nations, and our inserted Biden administration has given the keys to the car only to provoke our enemies to wreck America on purpose. And they are doing it with smiles on their faces. They have taken our military from us and intend to use it against us whenever possible. 

You can’t blame our enemies. They would never try to attack America with the kind of military that we’ve had and the technical abilities that are possible with it. Everyone would be a fool to take on the American military at face value; it’s been the best in the world. So rather than fight us on the battlefield, they have turned to elite capture to destroy and manipulate us from within. That is most obvious from China and their TikTok platform, which set algorithms that show American audiences much different information than their own people. TikTok directs content to their young people in China by showing interesting, thoughtful things. In America, it’s sex, drugs, and low-level thinking of every kind, and in its own way, is a poison injected into our culture to destroy any opposition to them that might exist. China doesn’t worry about America anymore, nor does Russia. They know. Our military is more worried about what lipstick our generals will wear to the latest press conference than in kicking the snot out of antagonizers. We have become used to just sending in an air raid to bomb a target remotely rather than facing off against terrorists in the streets of a major city. Look what happened in Uvalde, Texas, when there was a shooter in the school; the police were more interested in hand sanitizer for their soft little hands than in engaging the target to end the threat. That is the cost of wokeness and social emasculation in our American culture and is a problem across all our armed forces, from police to even the most elite military troops. It’s not just local news that saw that coverage of police afraid to engage one threatening kid shooting kids in a public school; China was watching, Iran was watching, and Russia was watching. North Korea was too. Think how many terrorists crossing over from the Mexican border witnessed those police in Uvalde terrified to engage a threat. Without question, it encourages their priorities of malice and chaos. 

I’ve heard it countless times when I say to people, “Hey, we don’t need the military in America. We can do the job ourselves.” The first thing people say is, “but they have rocket launchers, and airplanes, tanks; we could never fight an enemy like that.” Joe Biden often repeats those sentiments. The progressives assume that our “assault weapons” would not match a fully trained military. Well, I would beg to differ. We aren’t dealing with a military of Rambos that we might see in the movies. These are not the Top Gun: Maverick types. Most of the world’s military forces, the United Nations-controlled losers that sign up for these modern military tasks, are like those cops in Uvalde, more concerned with hand sanitizer than putting a bullet into a hostile character. It’s evident from me whenever I go to patriotic events, and the military is there doing ceremonies showing strength and reverence, even at NFL games, I am never very gushy about the military. I have never been, even in the good ol’ days of Ronald Reagan. I always looked at the American military as a luxury if it worked. But they would be the first possible enemy if we lost the leadership of America to foreign influence, which is obviously the case today. So I’ve never been a “thank you for your sacrifice” kind of person. I respect people who get into the military and try to do something productive with their lives. But I always have a wary eye on them. Because if they are willing to follow orders to a fault, they will follow the orders of the enemy if the enemy captures the leadership and will turn them on Americans without hesitation.

That is why the Second Amendment is so important and also why it’s important that private people can get access to large weapons and advanced technology. Because if we lose our military, which I would argue based on the transexual priorities they have, we already have, then we must be able to raise a militia to do what is needed to protect our homes and country without the help of the government military. But honestly, I’m not worried about a military run by a bunch of progressive wokesters going door to door for the illegal Biden regime to enforce lockdowns, conduct gun confiscation, or impose authoritarian rule. Even though they have access to the best technology on planet earth, you can beat those kinds of militaries by putting some hand sanitizer out and watching them coalesce around it. These are not the military of Patton or even General Jackson. We might want to think of them that way, and the ultimate insult to us all is that the enemy has taken that image away from us and given us the woke generals of today in their place. But the plan was for us to salute our way to them to our own detriment and eventual destruction. And that’s just not going to happen. Just as in the supply chain problems that we have everywhere as a direct result of progressive politics, the solution is just to do the jobs ourselves. To turn away from the luxuries of institutionalism and make those priorities decentralized and under the control of competent people. Not progressive government losers. All the technology in the world can’t make them good or dangerous. But the world needs to see that with or without a military, the people of America are bold and strong, and it truly is the home of the brave. That isn’t obvious by watching footage of the Uvalde police under pressure. But door to door across the USA, it’s there around the kitchen tables and in the garages. That American spirit is still there. We just don’t see it through the woke corporate media and government propaganda that is too busy trying to get transvestites to shower with hard-boiled Americans than in winning a global war on terror.

I know what my plan is if they ever come to my house looking for a fight; I’ll throw some hand sanitizer out to the end of my driveway and watch them kill each other over cleaning their hands. A military of woke losers is easy to beat, even with the best weapons in the world. If they work for the government and are more concerned about getting the jab, wearing a mask to avoid Covid, and taking showers with pronoun gender troops, I’m not worried about anything they might try to do that is aggressive. They’ll be easy to beat. 

Rich Hoffman

Click to buy The Gunfighter’s Guide to Business