Strengthening the US defense industrial base

The Department of Defense (DOD) needs to strengthen the defense industrial base to best support the U.S. military, so in January 2024, it released the National Defense Industrial Strategy. To further the strategy, the DOD released an Initiation Plan (NDIS-IP) in October containing six initiatives to “incentivize the development of a modernized, resilient defense industrial ecosystem.”

1. The Indo-Pacific deterrence initiative, with a long-term focus on lines of effort related to munitions, missiles, and submarine production.
2. The production and supply chains initiative, with a concentration on, among other things, onshoring defense-critical production capabilities, moving away from adversarial sources of capital, a deeper analysis of supply chain vulnerabilities, enhanced industrial cybersecurity, and critical materials stockpiling.
3. The allied and partner industrial collaboration initiative, which aims to further develop allied cooperation, with an emphasis on the AUKUS trilateral partnership, which comprises Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States, an expanded interest in weapons systems co-production with partners and allies, and international industrial collaboration.
4. The capabilities and infrastructure modernization initiative, which involves modernizing the nuclear industrial base, organic industrial base, and DOD’s maintenance, repair, and overhaul (MRO) and upgrade capacity.
5. The new capabilities using flexible pathways initiatives, where the department aims to, among other things, enhance the progress of the Replicator Initiative through a variety of various projects, studies, and white papers; and to better deploy its current acquisition authorities.
6. The intellectual property (IP) and data analysis initiative, which focuses on ensuring effective use of resources throughout a program life cycle by fully integrating IP planning into acquisition and product support strategies.

“We’ve always said it was only the first step – implementation is what really matters,” says Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment William LaPlante. “While we still have a lot of work ahead of us, this implementation plan is showing that we remain focused on putting words into tangible actions.”

The DOD obviously knows the United States needs help to improve its defense industrial base but if the six initiatives are implemented, that improvement could be coming soon by onshoring production, embracing help from its allies, modernizing infrastructure, and using emerging technologies such as 3D printing/additive manufacturing (3DP/AM). Manufacturers of all sizes could greatly benefit when these are implemented.