We give away our jobs and factories and industries to China. Some geniuses apparently thought that meant we should also let our military security be contracted out to China as well.
A new report from the Alliance for American Manufacturing (AAM), Remaking American Security, Authored by Brig. Gen. Adams (US Army, Retired) looks at supply chain weaknesses and chokepoints, to see how vulnerable our security is to disruption by China and other "potentially unreliable" foreign suppliers.
Yes, we farm out critical defense supply contracts to that China, the country that has been hacking into our computers.
Take a look at AAM's landing page for the report, Report Says U.S. Military Dangerously Dependent on Foreign Suppliers to see the Executive Summary and links into the report.
Conclusion: Our "over-reliance on foreign suppliers for critical defense materials" means that the country is dangerously dependent on "potentially unreliable" foreign suppliers for the raw materials, parts, and finished products needed to defend America.
Here is just one example from the report: "The United States is completely dependent on a single Chinese company for the chemical needed to produce the solid rocket fuel used to propel HELLFIRE missiles."
Solutions: This is so important that I am going to list the entire summary of conclusions, details are available in the report and condensed on a separate PDF.
But first, I want to point out that following these recommendations will also increase our own job base, reduce our massive trade deficit and strengthen our economy.
- Increasing long-term federal investment in high-technology industries, particularly those involving advanced research and manufacturing capabilities;
- Properly updating, applying, and enforcing existing laws and regulations to support the U.S. defense industrial base;
- Developing domestic sources of key natural resources that our armed forces require;
- Ensuring that defense industrial base concerns are considered at the highest levels when formulating the U.S. National Military Strategy, National Security Strategy and throughout the Quadrennial Defense Review process;
- Building consensus among government, industry, the defense industrial base workforce, and the military on the best ways to strengthen the defense industrial base;
- Increasing cooperation between federal agencies and between government and industry to build a healthier defense industrial base;
- Strengthening collaboration between government, industry, and academic research institutions to educate, train, and retain people with specialized skills to work in key defense industrial base sectors;
- Crafting legislation to support a broadly representative defense industrial base strategy;
- Modernizing and securing defense supply chains through networked operations that provide ongoing communications between prime contractors and the supply chains they depend on; and
- Identifying potential defense supply chain chokepoints and planning to prevent disruptions.
Please visit AAM's page on this report, and if you can please read the report.
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