Today, the Defense Department released the State of Competition in the Defense Industrial Base report, as directed by Executive Order 14036.
"The Department is renewing its efforts to ensure we can meet the challenges now and into the future. A vibrant, competitive and diverse defense industrial base will be critical to our success," said Deputy Secretary of Defense Dr. Kathleen Hicks. "As DoD works to innovate, bring new technologies into our supplier base, and develop the workforce of the future, American small businesses and our U.S. industrial base must expand not only to improve resiliency, but to ensure we are able to meet the needs of our warfighters for tomorrow's high-tech challenges."
The report discusses the current state of competition in the DIB and recommends DoD actions to promote a more diverse and expanded industrial base. The report also outlines actions that DoD is taking to specifically promote competition in its small business vendor base as well as in five priority industrial base sectors, including microelectronics, missiles and munitions, high-capacity batteries, castings and forgings, and critical minerals and materials.
The report made five recommendations:
- Strengthening merger oversight
- Addressing intellectual property limitations
- Increasing new entrants
- Increasing opportunities for small businesses
- Implementing sector-specific supply chain resiliency plans
More on these recommendations and the entire report can be found here.
