COMMENTARY: Americanize the Defense Industry Supply Chain.

• Author: Mccormack, Mike

High-ranking U.S. officials and corporate executives have sounded the alarm bells for years: U.S. national security is at risk due to our military's reliance on foreign nations for raw materials, parts and products.

It is time for leaders to walk their talk and wrestle back the manufacturing and defense industrial base.

U.S. corporations have outsourced more than 5 million jobs and 91,000 manufacturing plants since 1998, according to the Economic Policy Institute. The closing of factories in the nation for the past 24 years has forced the U.S. military to increasingly rely on imports to keep forces armed and ready.

The Alliance for American Manufacturing has been calling attention to this precarious issue since 2013, when it published a report, "Remaking American Security," that identified many of the weaknesses in the military supply chains and overall defense preparedness. The organization proclaimed that the health of the manufacturing sector is inextricably intertwined with national security, and it is vital we strengthen the sector.

Five years later, the situation had not improved. A Pentagon-led review ordered by then President Donald Trump in 2018 identified hundreds of instances where the U.S. military was dependent on foreign countries, especially China, for critical materials. For example, an analysis from the U.S. Geological Survey at the time said the United States produced no rare earth minerals in 2017, while China accounted for 81 percent of global mine production. Rare earth minerals are used in magnets, radars and other electronics critical to defense systems.

Four years later, the next administration raised the same concerns. A February report developed on the order of President Joe Biden warned of the consequences of low manufacturing investment in the United States. The study pointed out that the U.S. share of the world market in goods has continuously declined, and manufacturing output as a percentage of GDP has similarly declined, from more than 25 percent in 1947 to 11 percent at the end of 2020. The report went on to outline 64 recommendations as initial steps in a longer-term effort to build a strong and responsive supply chain in the coming years.

Despite the warnings, the situation continues to get worse. The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the need for a continued push for onshoring and revitalizing North American manufacturing. When the outbreak began, supply lines necessary to sustain production within the...