Pentagon Defense Industrial Strategy Says Enough Capacity “Not There”

By Charlie Zisette,  Executive Director of the National Armaments Consortium

The Pentagon recently shared a blunt preview of what the public can expect from the first-ever National Defense Industrial Strategy. According to the report, the U.S. defense industrial base –makers of the most advanced, effective weapons in the world –is at its current limit. The U.S. defense industrial base, the report says, “does not possess the capacity, capability, responsiveness, or resilience required to satisfy the full range of military production needs at speed and scale.”

This is a stark warning that should serve as a wake-up call to everyone interested in defense innovation and acquisition.

So how do we answer the call? How do we encourage innovation and build resilient supply chains for the technologies, large and small, required to meet the needs of our warfighters, support the conflicts of today, and deter the conflicts of tomorrow?

The key is this: increased collaboration between government, industry, and academia.

This challenge is too large for any one stakeholder group to address. It will take the combined power, ingenuity, and know-how of the government and industry and academia to build resilient supply chains that can rapidly develop, manufacture, and field the technologies our warfighters need to maintain our decisive edge on the battlefield.

Path Forward

There are two ways that the Department of Defense (DoD) can support a more collaborative engagement with industry.