Doug Orsi
The results of a 2023 wargame simulating a Chinese amphibious invasion of Taiwan showed that the combined forces of Taiwan, Japan, and the U.S. successfully denied Chinese objectives and defeated the invasion. However, multiple aircraft carriers and dozens of cruisers and destroyers were lost. Additionally, critical munitions needed to defeat Chinese forces were rapidly depleted due to limited magazine capacity and delayed logistics support. Current events in Ukraine, Russia, and the Middle East have confirmed the wargame’s conclusions as prescient, revealing the U.S. defense industrial base struggles to support the nation’s military commitments and policy goals. As a result, although the country still produces advanced systems and munitions, it lacks the capacity to replace material losses and expenditures during prolonged combat. The country must promptly address these issues by expanding policies, authorities, investments, and partnerships with like-minded nations that foster co-manufacturing, maintenance, and knowledge sharing in the construction of combat platforms to compensate for existing industrial base deficiencies.
Atrophy and Sounding the Alarm
The health of the defense industrial base is vital to the success and sustainability of military campaigns. In 2024, a bipartisan Commission on the National Defense Strategy found that the defense industrial base “is unable to meet the equipment, technology, and munitions needs of the U.S. and its allies and partners.” Through inattention, flawed policy, and poor strategic decisions, the U.S. allowed its defense industrial base to atrophy. The decline of the defense industrial base also included years of neglect of government-owned facilities, which served as the purveyor for the military’s higher-end modernization priorities.
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