BACKGROUNDER
No. 3680 | JANUARY 4, 2022
CENTER FOR NATIONAL DEFENSE
This paper, in its entirety, can be found at http://report.heritage.org/bg3680
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Revitalizing the National
Defense Stockpile for an Era of
Great-Power Competition
Maiya Clark
U.S. policymakers are rightly concerned
about global defense supply chains, given
their importance to successfully engaging
in great-power competition.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
The National Defense Stockpile is a crucial
resource meant to provide manufacturers
with secure access to materials needed for
essential defense goods and services.
Given trends toward increased U.S.
dependence on foreign-sourced strategic
materials, the NDS should, at minimum,
be evaluated and increased in scope.
U
.S. policymakers are intensely concerned
about global defense supply chains—and for
good reason. Renewed great-power competi-
tion has elevated the importance of national defense
and the industrial base that supports it. This includes
the United States’ sourcing of strategic materials,
which are required to build the weapons systems and
defense capabilities utilized by the U.S. military. Just
last year the COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated the
fragility of our access to these materials.
Geopolitics and the nature of the global economy
further endanger strategic material supply chains.
China—the United States’ chief global competitor—
is either the sole supplier or a primary supplier of
many of the minerals and materials used in defense
manufacturing. Unlike the Cold War, in which the
Soviet Union and the United States were economically
