The attrition of these platforms, munitions, and the critical minerals that constitute them would require replenishment during a conflict. For example, in a 2013 report, the Department of Defense said that one Virginia-class submarine requires 9,200 pounds of rare earth elements and that one Aegis destroyer requires 5,200 pounds of rare earth elements. military would use platforms and munitions that contain substantial critical minerals. government should prioritize stockpiling critical minerals in platforms and munitions likely to attrit in a U.S.-Chinese conflict and sourcing these minerals primarily from the United States and secondarily from U.S. To best ensure the defense industrial base has adequate minerals for a high-intensity, long-duration U.S.-Chinese conflict, the National Defense Stockpile should contain enough critical minerals to satisfy three years of U.S. The Department of Defense says the Defense Logistics Agency - the agency responsible for managing the National Defense Stockpile - uses “a robust, data-driven modeling process” to determine the appropriate levels of minerals in the National Defense Stockpile, meeting these levels by acquiring more minerals when necessary and selling some minerals when possible. While classified, this war scenario is likely a U.S.-Chinese conflict over Taiwan, including a homeland defense situation. military and essential civilian needs in a hypothetical war scenario. The statutory purpose of the National Defense Stockpile is to stockpile strategic and critical materials in order “to decrease and to preclude, when possible, a dangerous and costly dependence by the United States upon foreign sources or a single point of failure for supplies of such materials in times of national emergency.” In other words, the National Defense Stockpile should contain enough materials to support the U.S. government should increase critical mineral stocks in the National Defense Stockpile. To ensure the defense industrial base indeed has sufficient supplies of critical minerals, we believe that the U.S. government does not have enough critical minerals to effectively fight - and win - a war against China. But our combined years of experience in the sector and our desire to safeguard America’s national security and economic prosperity have led us to the conclusion that the U.S. military’s ability to defeat the Chinese military: The United States lacks sufficient stocks of critical minerals to support the defense industrial base, from nickel in superalloys for jet engines to rare earth elements in magnets for guided munitions.Īs a principal at Dei Gratia Minerals and as an independent critical minerals analyst, we, the authors, have an interest in increased U.S. A longer, more intense U.S.-Chinese conflict over Taiwan would expose even deeper cracks in the defense industrial base and undermine the U.S. This equipment is used to characterize ballistics, aerodynamics, and parachute performance for artillery shells, bomb drops, missiles, and rockets.The 2022 National Defense Strategy describes China as America’s “most consequential strategic competitor for the coming decades.” Yet the United States is unprepared to fight a major war against the Chinese military - or even to arm Ukraine against the Russian military, as evidenced by the defense industrial base’s struggle to replenish munitions like artillery shells and Javelin missiles. TTR offers a wide array of signal-tracking equipment, including video, high-speed cameras, and radar-tracking devices. One of the primary facilities at TTR is a large airfield, consisting of a 12,000-foot (3,700-m) runway and numerous hangars. Situated between two mountain ranges, TTR's remote location and restricted airspace ensure that tests can be conducted with a high degree of safety and security. Located about 160 miles northwest of Las Vegas, TTR is an immense area of flat terrain ideal for rockets and low-altitude, high-speed aircraft operations. government agencies and their contractors. The range also offers a unique test environment for use by other U.S. Principal DOE activities at TTR include stockpile reliability testing arming, fusing, and firing systems testing and the testing of nuclear weapon delivery systems. Sandia conducts operations at TTR in support of the Department of Energy/National Nuclear Security Administration's weapons programs. Tonopah Test Range (TTR) is the testing range of choice for all national security missions.
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