Pentagon Unveils Its Long-Awaited Defense Industry Strategy
One thing is clear in the Pentagon’s first and much-anticipated defense industrial strategy: weapons and technologies must be purchased and ready for mass production quickly. But the question remains: Will there be enough money to make this happen?
The Defense Department’s national defense industrial strategy, released Thursday, outlines four main priorities, all of which have been prominently discussed in recent years: resilient supply chains, workforce readiness, flexible acquisition, and economic deterrence.
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Anthony Rapa, co-chair of the international trade group at the law firm Blank Rome, said achieving everything in the document will require multiple conversations—with Congress and industry. And it’s going to take time.
“It's going to require things like workforce training, better tracking of sub-tier suppliers, more outreach to suppliers, lowering the barriers to entry for them and helping them to comply with regulations. maybe making some of that easier for them. All of these things make total sense in terms of how to address the problem they've diagnosed,” Rapa said. “But to accomplish these things…we're talking about a period of years, and we're talking about a generational-type modernization of the defense industrial base.”
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"Pentagon Unveils Its Long-Awaited Defense Industry Strategy," by Lauren C. Williams was published in Defense One on January 11, 2024.