Genre: Instruction

Military Provisioning Guardian 6 Recommendations . 1 : Increasing long-term federal investment in high-technology industries , particularly those involving advanced research and manufacturing capabilities . The distinguishing attribute of the U.S. defense industrial base is technological innovation . As foreign nations continue manufac ¬ turing an ever-larger share of America's defense supplies , the United States increases its risk of diminishing its capacity to design and commercialize emerging defense technologies . To help ensure that our armed forces dominate the future battlefield , Congress should provide funding for American manufacturers to develop and implement advanced process technologies . 2 : Properly applying and enforcing existing laws and regulations to support the U.S. defense industrial base . Domestic source preferences already enacted into law , such as those that apply to the steel and titanium industries under the Specialty Metals Clause , must be retained to ensure that important defense capabilities remain secure and available for the U.S. armed forces . 3 : Developing domestic sources of key natural resources required by our armed forces . Right now the United States relies far too heavily on foreign nations for certain key metals and other raw materials needed to manufacture weapons systems and other military supplies . For example , most rare earth elements , which are essential components of many modern military technologies , currently must be purchased from China . The U.S. government and industry must stockpile these vital raw materials , strengthen efforts to resume mining and transformation of the materials in the United States , improve recycling to make more efficient use of current supplies , and identify alternate materials . 4 : Developing plans to strengthen our defense industrial base in the U.S. National Military Strategy , National Security Strategy , and the Quadrennial Defense Review process . This would make creating and sustaining a healthier defense industrial base a higher national priority , with a focus on increasing support for the most important and vulnerable industrial sectors . 8 : Crafting legislation to support a broadly representative defense industrial base strategy . Congress and the Administration must collaborate on economic and fiscal policies that budget for enduring national security capabilities and sustain the industrial base necessary to support them . 9 : Modernizing and securing defense supply chains through networked operations . These operations should be built on the excellent work that the DOD and industry are already doing to map and secure defense supply chains . The operations would provide ongoing communications between prime contractors and the supply chains they depend on . Closer communications , patterned on the networked operations of U.S. military forces around the world , would help managers identify and solve recurring problems with military supplies . 10 : Identifying potential defense supply chain chokepoints and planning to prevent disruptions . This recommendation would require determining the scope of foreign control over critical military supply chains and finding ways of restoring U.S. control . Subscribe Now !