The Pentagon is realigning $81.4 million to strengthen and secure high-tech supply chains in the U.S. defense industrial base, with much of the funding headed toward directed-energy weapons, electric vehicle batteries, nuclear missile aeroshells, and the recycling of rare earth elements, according to an internal reprogramming notice released today.
The funds are being moved internally from a Pentagon defense-wide procurement account intended to bolster the defense industrial base.
About $15 million is being transferred to the Army to make “strategic equipment purchases” to increase the domestic capacity at which critical components for a “Directed-Energy Weapon of a high energy laser system are produced,” the notice states.
Nearly $11 million is being directed toward the Defense Innovation Unit to accelerate DOD’s battery standardization plan for electric vehicles by aligning the department with commercial battery standards in the current EV market. The funds are intended to test, prototype and invest in domestic EV battery production to secure the supply chain, according to the notice.
The Navy is receiving a transfer of $10 million intended to “reinvigorate” the domestic supply of aeroshell components needed to support U.S. nuclear modernization programs.
“The aeroshell industrial base has not produced reentry body components at scale since the 1980s and is inadequate to meet the production needs of the services in support of the nation's nuclear deterrent,” the notice states. “Critical investments are required to replace atrophied or obsolete equipment.”
The Pentagon is also transferring $6 million to develop a domestic capability to recycle rare earth elements from waste streams and industrial scrap to support the production of thermal barrier coatings for jet engines.
“REES are critical ingredients for thermal barrier coatings to protect parts from degradation under high temperature during engine operation,” the notice states.
An additional $5 million is being directed toward a pilot program intended to help small businesses obtain cybersecurity certification by providing them with a secure computer network on which they are authorized to handle “controlled unclassified information.”
The pilot is intended to “reduce the cybersecurity cost burden to these companies and expand the defense industrial base,” the notice states.
Meanwhile, $5 million is being directed to the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center to use AI to help identify “foreign ownership, control and interest” in the U.S. defense industrial base.