U.S. Can’t Keep Up with the Weapons Global Demand Pace

U.S. defense companies lack the capacity to produce weapons to meet global demand rapidly.

This is stated in the draft of the first-ever National Defense Industrial Strategy, according to Politico.

The draft strategy is set to be officially released by the Pentagon in the coming weeks.

The strategy is meant to be a comprehensive look at what the Pentagon needs to tap into the expertise of small tech firms, while funding and supporting traditional companies to move faster to develop new tech.

As it stands now, the U.S. defense industrial base “does not possess the capacity, capability, responsiveness, or resilience required to satisfy the full range of military production needs at speed and scale,” according to a draft version of the report, obtained by Politico.

The report notes that the United States builds the best weapons in the world but can’t produce them quickly enough.

“This mismatch presents a growing strategic risk as the United States confronts the imperatives of supporting active combat operations … while deterring the larger and more technically advanced pacing threat looming in the Indo-Pacific,” the study says.

The report also points out that the COVID pandemic laid bare the supply chain’s vulnerabilities. Then Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the Hamas attack on Israel “uncovered a different set of industrial demands and corresponding risks” as the U.S. raced to produce arms to support Ukraine and Israel.

“It has become clear that insufficient production and supply capacity are now deeply entrenched problems throughout all tiers of production supply chains,” the report says.

To fix the problem, the strategy says the U.S. Department of Defense “will develop more resilient and innovative supply chains,” invest in smaller businesses, and focus more on innovation.

It is worth noting that U.S. military assistance to Ukraine has mobilized the U.S. defense industry and attracted billions of dollars in arms production.

Military aid is beneficial for American workers in different states; it provides significant funding for factories across the country, and it creates jobs.