Strengthening the Defense Industrial Base through Supply Chain Diversification and Partnerships

The United States faces mounting challenges to its national security supply chains, including over-consolidation, supply chain fragility, and limited innovation pathways. These challenges reflect longstanding institutional incentives and processes, and addressing them requires coordinated action across government, industry, and trusted allied partners.

This paper focuses on opportunities to improve the Defense Industrial Base’s (DIB’s) resiliency by applying a strategic approach to international collaboration. The comprehensive strategy focuses on three key actions: selling military technology to allies, buying from allied suppliers, and co-developing and co-producing new technologies with partners. 

These actions will accelerate innovation, build resilience, enhance collective security, and align with the April 2025 Executive Orders, “Modernizing Defense Acquisitions and Spurring Innovation in the Defense Industrial Base” and “Reforming Foreign Defense Sales to Improve Speed and Accountability." The recommendations in this paper are designed to operationalize these approaches.