The Air & Space Forces and the defense industrial base (DIB) are truly co-dependent on each other. As such, the DIB’s challenges adversely impact these critical military services to meet the challenges of today and tomorrow.

We all know the DoD the issued its first-ever National Defense Industrial Strategy (NDIS) in January, but strategy is not implementation. However, Laura Taylor-Kale, the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base policy, yesterday (Oct 30, 2024) announced the first steps toward implementation.

At the heart of the plan are six implementation priorities requiring the most urgent action to secure the U.S.’s ability to prevent war or prevail if drawn into war. The priorities are:

• Indo-Pacific Deterrence: Invest in the increased production of interchangeable munitions, missiles and, most recently with Australia, the submarine industrial base, strengthening partnerships with traditional and new allies.

• Production and Supply Chains: Invest to make the supply chain more resilient—especially for key items like microprocessor chips and rare earth elements. The plan also calls for bigger weapon stockpiles and re-establishing or invigorating domestic production of critical materials and items.

• Allied and Partner Collaboration: Co-produce commonly-used weapons, such as 155 mm mortar shells, with partners and allies worldwide. Taylor-Kale also said the U.S. must learn to rely on the technical sophistication of allies if they have a superior approach to certain capabilities.

• Capabilities and Infrastructure Modernization: Upgrade and overhaul military depots and nuclear weapons production and maintenance facilities to ensure “scalability” to larger-scale production.

• New Capabilities Using Flexible Pathways: Use rapid prototyping to develop and field new weapons at scale, like the Pentagon’s “Replicator” initiative, Mid-Tier Acquisitions and “Other Transactional Authorities” authorized by Congress to speed the fielding of new systems.

• Intellectual Property and Data Analysis: Recognize that protecting intellectual property rights and investments fosters competition.

For more details :
   View the NDIS Implementation Plan for FY2025 (click here)
   View the AFA Magazine article (click here)
   View the Federal News Network article (click here)
   View the Center for Strategic Internal Studies Interview with the Honorable Dr. Laura Taylor-Kale (click here)