The House Armed Services Committee (HASC) on Wednesday approved a provision that would direct the Defense Department to study whether it should create a panel of stakeholders and experts to keep an eye on whether the defense industrial base (DIB) can meet wartime production requirements.
The amendment was offered by Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.), a committee member, and was approved en bloc by unanimous consent with a host of other provisions as part of the chairman’s mark during the HASC markup of its recommendations for the fiscal year 2025 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).
Banks’ amendment calls for a feasibility study by DoD within 180 days of final passage of the NDAA on the establishment for five years of the Defense Industrial Revitalization Board, which would assess the health of the DIB, identify shortages and hurdles to producing critical munitions and other materials, “identify required production rates for critical munitions,” and provide oversight and management of DoD and the services’ efforts to strengthen DIB capacity.
To guide its efforts, the board would develop a “comprehensive plan” and specific steps to increased DIB capacity, use existing supply chain mapping to identify single points of failure for munitions, weapons platforms, to identify reliance on foreign adversaries’ in the supply chain for munitions, to identify funding mechanisms to create second sources related to munitions that would be used in a potential war in the Pacific theater, review critical munitions capacity twice a year, establish minimum procurement rates for these munitions and ensure they are budgeted for, and be responsible for fixing production shortfalls.
The board would consist of DoD acquisition, research and engineering, and financial personnel, service acquisition chiefs and program managers, defense industry representatives, think tank experts, and the Defense Innovation Unit.
Also included in the provisions approved en bloc was an amendment by Rep. Austin Scott (R-Ga.) that directs DoD brief the committee by March 1, 2025, on what the department needs to do to modernize its organic industrial base to meet production needs in the event of conflicts with “peer adversaries in multiple theaters.” The review would include the investments needed to modernize the organic base by 2030, the feasibility of expanding that base, and incentives to attract, retain, and train the organic base.
The Russo-Ukrainian War has put a spotlight on the enormous quantities of munitions being expended in the drawn-out conflict and whether the U.S. has the stockpiles and production capacity to keep pace if it gets caught in a long war.