“Secure sourcing of critical minerals is critical to the defense industrial base, which uses them to produce virtually every Defense Department system, from unmanned aerial systems and fighter jets to submarines,” said Adam Burstein.
Burstein, technical director for strategic and critical materials in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy, spoke today at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island.
“Recent disruptions [due to] adversarial actions have underscored what we have long recognized – that it is more urgent than ever to build capability and resilience in supply chains for critical minerals,” he said.
“To do so, DoD must address challenges. Besides adversarial disruptions of critical minerals, there are other problems related to critical minerals like insufficient labor and training in the US to meet defense production demand and inadequate U.S. and allied sourcing for key materials and production,” Burstein said.