The U.S. protection industrial base and all branches of the U.S. army rely closely on supplies produced by China to make and use crucial weapon methods, creating nationwide safety dangers, a authorities watchdog warned in a current report.
The Protection Division depends on a worldwide community of over 200,000 suppliers for its weapon methods and army tools and makes use of the Federal Procurement Knowledge System database to flag supplies and elements originating from hostile nations.
Nonetheless, this database at the moment “offers restricted details about the nations of origin,” a July 24 Authorities Accountability Workplace report discovered, and federal contractors should not at the moment contractually obligated to inform DOD the place all of their manufacturing elements originate from.
Of over 99 supplies whole recognized by DOD in shortfall for fiscal 2023, none had been made within the U.S., GAO famous.
The result’s that many elements utilized in key weapon methods and army tools are being manufactured by China and different nations with adversarial goals to the USA.
“These suppliers could lower off U.S. entry to crucial supplies or present ‘again doorways’ of their know-how that function intelligence pathways,” GAO mentioned.
China, a worldwide provider of crucial mineral elements utilized in microelectronics and battery manufacturing, illustrated that threat in 2024 when it imposed export restrictions on gallium and germanium — two minerals described by GAO as “crucial for military-grade electronics.”
In one other occasion cited by the watchdog, manufacturing of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter was delivered to a standstill because of the discovery of Chinese language elements throughout manufacturing. Though the fighter is being produced with assistance from seven allied accomplice nations — together with the UK, Canada, Australia and a number of other European Union nations — magnets included within the warplanes originated from China.
“The F-35 prime contractor, Lockheed Martin, recognized prohibited Chinese language magnets within the F-35 provide chain and notified DOD in 2023 and 2024. DOD subsequently paused manufacturing for a number of months to establish different suppliers,” in line with the report.
In the meantime, the U.S. naval shipbuilding trade — significantly with regard to submarine manufacturing — can be being impacted by its reliance on international provides, GAO discovered. Submarines require titanium casting for crucial vessel elements, however the U.S. at current lacks the capability to forged titanium as a result of restricted provide in addition to outdated tools to forge it into weapon methods.
“The U.S. has just one foundry that may produce massive titanium casting required for some key weapons methods,” the report famous.
Though DOD has famous the chance of international dependency, GAO mentioned, it has taken no motion to implement any really helpful enhancements, which would come with efforts towards extra detailed and clear monitoring of the nation of origin of crucial army elements.
“One untested strategy that DOD officers acknowledged might give DOD extra visibility into international dependency dangers is to contractually require suppliers to supply the knowledge,” the report mentioned. “Whereas some DOD officers assert the knowledge is available, others acknowledged this strategy could also be too expensive or that suppliers will not be keen to supply data.”
Zita Ballinger Fletcher beforehand served as editor of Army Historical past Quarterly and Vietnam magazines and because the historian of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. She holds an M.A. with distinction in army historical past.
