PRESIDENTIAL TRANSITION: PRIORITY TOPIC MEMO
AUGUST 2024
MOTIVATING A SUPPLY CHAIN
ENTERPRISE APPROACH TO PROTECT
THE DEFENSE INDUSTRIAL BASE
The global network of materials, manufacturing, and services
that make up the U.S. defense industrial base (DIB) is vulnerable
to potential disruptions by adversaries seeking to exploit the
Department of Defense’s (DoD) supply chain dependencies.
The creation of a comprehensive Protect the DIB program offers
a pragmatic and cost-efficient solution to safeguard DoD’s access
and sustainment of critical systems and technologies.
The Case for Action
The U.S. DIB has become increasingly global, with worldwide dependencies
ranging from foreign-manufactured equipment and components to foreign
investment in research and development (R&D) for critical technologies.
This creates significant risk for the DIB where those dependencies intersect
with competitor or adversary nations that could weaponize supply chain
dependencies. To counter these risks, DoD requires an enterprise-level
analytic capability for identifying and mitigating risks to defense systems at
scale, including a practical, cost-effective means for verifying the provenance,
trustworthiness, accessibility, and non-maliciousness of suppliers that are at risk
of influence by adversary nations.
This concept is supported by the objectives outlined in the 2024 National
Defense Industrial Strategy (NDIS)
1
by leveraging expanded supply chain
visibility to “proactively, aggressively, and systematically” mitigate risks,
manage disruptions, and fulfill the requirements of the FY24 National Defense
Authorization Act (NDAA).
2
For example, Section 856 of the NDAA calls on
DoD to “analyze, map, and monitor supply chains” and identify key risks and
vulnerabilities within these supply chains.
Key Challenges and Opportunities
To meet the goals outlined in the 2024 NDIS, a thorough Protect the DIB program
is essential. This program requires access to, funding for, and a contractual method
to procure a wide range of regularly updated data from both commercial and
governmental sources. Utilizing this data necessitates a continuous investment
in automation development to comprehensively map DIB supply chains beyond
program silos, thereby identifying potential risks and vulnerabilities. The data should
be stored in a repository that can be easily queried, allowing information from
the Services and Program Offices to be readily stored. The program also requires
DoD requires an
enterprise-level
analytic capability
for identifying and
mitigating risks to
defense systems
at scale.
MITRE’s mission-driven teams are
dedicated to solving problems for a
safer world. Through our public-private
partnerships and federally funded R&D
centers, we work across government and
in partnership with industry to tackle
challenges to the safety, stability, and
well-being of our nation.
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