The challenge is ensuring commercial electronics can be scaled, surged and, most importantly, trusted as one element within a national strategy.
U.S production for key UAV electronic components, airframes and propulsion systems remains fragmented, with limited capacity for rapid surge.
Successful defense across land, sea, air, space and cyberspace depends on technology that can perform reliably across multiple domains and with limited connection.
Defense electronics are the endgame, and scaling up mineral capacity without doing the same for electronics will lead to failure.
Tablets used by the military are assembled with parts that trace back to companies under China’s control, with some flagged by Congress for ties to the Chinese military.
Microelectronics manufacturing has been offshored over the past 25 years, which threatens our ability to produce microelectronics at scale.
The lack of U.S. manufacturing for flat panel displays and reliance on Chinese sources present significant, potentially catastrophic risks to the U.S. military, economy and infrastructure.
The problem isn’t just about microelectronics that have shifted offshore over the last several decades. Rather, it’s about failure to act, even as the path forward is staring at us in the face.
It will take years to purge the myriad military systems containing content from our adversaries. In the meantime, we remain at risk for a catastrophic event that could disrupt military operations and cripple critical infrastructure.
