The Pentagon will release its first National Defense Industrial Strategy in December, which the department’s acquisition chief said will include a focus on the “increasing roles that allies and partners have” in efforts to bolster production capacity.
Along with the new strategy, Bill LaPlante, the under secretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, reiterated on Wednesday the Pentagon is set to announce additional co-development, production and sustainment arrangements with international partners soon.
“The more we work together to expand global capacity of production and sustainment and foster opportunities for even co-development, co-production and co-sustainment, the better off we will be. And it will be a deterrent,” LaPlante said during remarks at the ComDef 2023 conference. “Whether it’s with Japan, whether it’s with Australia [or] European countries, you’re going to see more co-production, co-development and co-sustainment…We also must integrate our industrial bases more closely. Many of our industrial bases are tied together across the globe.”
In late August, LaPlante told reporters to expect more announcements in the coming months on munitions co-production efforts with other countries as well as initiatives to assist international partners with building their own munitions on U.S.-based production lines (Defense Daily, Aug. 29).
LaPlante has cited the recently detailed plan for Australia to begin building Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) rockets by 2025 as a “blueprint” for co-production arrangements (Defense Daily, Aug. 1).
“Whether it’s through co-development, production or sustainment or Security of Supply Arrangements…or a myriad of other tools, we will achieve these industrial objectives together and we will do it with partners and allies,” LaPlante said on Wednesday.
Along with the focus on bolstering cooperation with international partners, Justin McFarlin, deputy assistant secretary of defense for industrial base development and international engagement, said on Wednesday the new National Defense Industrial Strategy will focus on resilient supply chains, workforce readiness, flexible acquisition and economic deterrence.
McFarlin said the flexible acquisition piece of the strategy looks “at tackling the issues to try to deliver at speed, at scale and at a reasonable cost,” as well as continuing to leverage open system approaches and modularity for rapid upgrades.
“So it’s looking at things like requirements and how do we ensure that there’s minimal scope creep. Because the more things you pack into requirements, the broader the scope and things that you’re trying to shove into the system or platform, the longer it’s going to take to develop, the longer it’s going to take to deliver and the higher price it’s going to be,” McFarlin said.
The economic deterrence component of the strategy is a reflection of the “pacing challenge” posed by China as it relates to industrial base threats.
“As Dr. LaPlante mentioned, we are facing a pacing challenge [with China]. And they are very strategic and thoughtful in where and how they compete with us. So things such as countering foreign investment, where we want to make sure we have visibility into [merger and acquisition] activity, investment activity and [making sure] that it’s not going to be detrimental to our economic security,” McFarlin said.