Mike Griffin, the under secretary of defense for research and engineering, has tasked the Defense Science Board with reviewing the U.S. defense industrial base to identify "proactive" steps needed to increase depth, breadth and security.
Griffin, in an Oct. 30 memo to the board, said the defense industrial base is "showing signs of age."
"Technologies are now drawn from a global technology base outside of the defense industrial base and must 'trickle down' to the defense industrial base through an acquisition process that limits the defense industrial base’s ability to exploit the process," he wrote.
Griffin also laments that between 1992 and 2007 the number of prime contractors declined from 30 to five.
"The successive narrowing of the scope of the major defense industrial base firms to a predominant defense focus (with a diminishing number of exceptions) left the defense industrial base as an isolated national defense 'island,' operating in a sea of thriving commercial information-driven firms operating on a global basis," he wrote.
Griffin's concerns echo those voiced by President Trump in a July 2017 executive order, that resulted in a major Pentagon defense industrial base review.
Griffin wants the DSB to begin its own review within the next three months, conduct the study over the following nine to 12 months, and complete a report on it six months after that.
In a separate memo to the DSB, Griffin highlights microelectronics as a key area of concern for DOD.
"The need for innovative microelectronics, as well as the ability to sustain the trustworthy and assured microelectronics supply for legacy Department of Defense systems, is a challenge for the department," he wrote.
To that end, Griffin has established a study group with an unwieldy name -- the DSB Task Force on a Strategy for Ensuring U.S. Leadership in Microelectronics and Securing the Technical Advantage of the U.S. Military.
Griffin wants the task force to identify approaches for how DOD can surge microelectronics production, assure access to trustworthy sources of supply, and explore if public-private partnerships address any shortfalls.
The schedule for the microelectronics study will be the same as that of the defense industrial base review, according to the memo.