The 146-page report, commissioned by President Trump in 2017 and set to be released in full on Friday, identifies close to 300 supply chain vulnerabilities, with China alone mentioned over 230 times.
"China," the report points out, "is the single or sole supplier for a number of specialty chemicals used in munitions and missiles," with the US also depending on the People's Republic for everything from solar cells tp flat-panel displays for US warplanes.
According to the report, "all facets of the manufacturing and defense industrial base are currently under threat," and the US is faced with the issue of entire industries being "near domestic extinction." China, its trade policy and its alleged theft of intellectual property are to blame, it says.
In addition to China, the report mentions other countries, pointing, for example, to a US dependence on Japan and Europe in carbon fibers for missiles, rockets and satellites, vacuum tubes for night vision goggles, and other components.
To allay these problems, the report recommends reducing America's dependence on Chinese and other foreign-made weapons components, and making an effort to "grow domestic science, technology, engineering, mathematics and critical trade skills." The report also goes after an "antiquated and counter-productive" procurement procedure at the Pentagon which it says results in delays, lack of innovation and increased costs.
According to Ellen Lord, the Pentagon's top acquisition official, the MIC supports some 2.4 million US jobs, and accounts for $865 billion in "annual industry output," as well as $143 billion in export earnings.
