I enjoy talking to random people. Well, not really random; I mean if you’re in an airport and you’re talking to someone there, it’s a self-selecting subset of society.
Depending on when you’re traveling, and where you’re traveling to, you’re going to run into business people and vacationers, and those are folks who value their time. While at the airport recently, I met a man who’s a civilian contractor for our military. His job is to identify what pieces of consumer electronics can be cannibalized for parts that keep our jet fighters in the air in the case of a conflict.
I was astonished – the best maker of military hardware in the world (that’s US) does not make all the parts?
Our greatest generation were completely vertically integrated when it came to making all the necessary hardware to win World War II, to prevail in the Korean Conflict, and to wreak havoc on North Vietnam. We did pretty well in the Middle East more recently, and militaries throughout the world know that our jet fighters are hands down the best. But today there are big pieces of the tech that we not only don’t manufacture, but which we can’t manufacture.
We are not vertically integrated, we don’t make it, and in many cases, we can’t make it. Battery technology. Display technology. Switches. Small motors. All things we invented, developed, and improved which are now no longer made “In the USA”.
Even when we “make” something, it often has to be sent to another country for finishing. For example, the microprocessors and memory integrated circuits in our cellular telephones and computers. We may design them here, and then “grow” the substrate, and make the integrated circuit itself, but it’s worthless if you can’t finish mounting it in a package.
That is done in Taiwan. Nearly exclusively. And the bulk of their output is shipped to that other China. You know, the one that tolerates us long enough to abuse our markets and steal our intellectual property. Which puts us in the precarious position of having to depend on a global infrastructure that, through no fault of our own, could become suddenly unavailable.
So, I started doing my research – it seems the top items are display technology (LED, LCD and OLED screens), microprocessors, and battery technology for portable devices and aircraft. We don’t make them here and we can’t make them. It would take years and billions to bring up a chip finishing operation, regardless of the national importance heaped on it.
Old tech is not exempt, either.
You would think we do a pretty good job with steel, even if we are the fourth largest producer in the world (79.5 million MT) and far behind China (1005.1 million MT). Think tank armor. We make the best tanks in the world. They depend on steel.
You would think steel is something we are good at. Think again. In 2025, tank armor for the finest tanks in the world has a large percentage of its steel made in Brazil. It’s a high carbon steel that some say we can’t make. Much of what I read seemed to indicate that we are better equipped to ramp up steel production as opposed to finishing integrated circuits.
It almost does not matter if it’s “don’t” make as opposed to a “can’t” make. It’s the same net effect. We are held hostage to other countries and shipping infrastructure, both of which are fleeting in a time of conflict.
We are already seeing what Russia’s relationship with China is doing to Ukraine.
In a conflict dependent on huge quantities of largely disposable flying drones, a supply chain interruption is the difference between life and death; the difference between prevailing and becoming a footnote in history. The Ukrainians have done amazing things accelerating the development of newer and better drones, but it’s all for naught if you can’t make them and deploy them against your enemy.
I’m thrilled that our military machine is preparing for all eventualities.
I don’t know how I feel knowing that we have spent the last three decades or more exporting the capabilities to make the machines that protect our fighting men and women, and our freedoms. That’s why I’m thankful that our President is engineering a resurgence of American manufacturing.
I hope we can all agree that “Made in America” is good for us economically, strategically and militarily.
We can’t afford not to.
