Marcy’s Musings: The Legislative Outlook—Helping or Hurting?
It’s Only Common Sense: The Phone Is Still Mightier Than the Keyboard
The Marketing Minute: Marketing With Layers
A Less Expensive Defense and Aerospace PCB Fab Startup
August 20, 2024 | Alex Stepinski, Stepinski GroupEstimated reading time: 1 minute
Editor’s note: Investing in a new printed circuit board fabrication startup is not for the faint of heart or the light of wallet. Standing up a new “high-tech” PCB fab facility capable of becoming qualified for aerospace and defense work typically takes a minimum investment of $50 million. However, Alex Stepinski says entering the defense and aerospace markets with a new PCB fabrication start-up facility far under this prohibitive cost benchmark is possible when good partnerships, innovation, and sound engineering design enter from the beginning. In this article, Alex Stepinski outlines just how this can be achieved.
While industrial policies will hopefully result in a more competitive landscape for defense procurement by copying established processes from East Asia, they do very little to promote actual value innovation (i.e., communism didn’t create Silicon Valley). The best we can hope for are products at a 3-10x premium over what East Asia can do because this is the achievable equilibrium of just taking overseas process equipment while not accepting the cultural and organizational aspects that drive cost efficiency there.
We have also found that investors are more focused on de-risking by copying rather than de-risking by innovating. This is largely because PCB fabrication is a low-innovation industry in general. Expectations are low, domain knowledge is scarce, and group-think dynamics around legacy solutions are high. Every project has consultants and experts who bring together all the best-established ideas. But where are the new ideas?
To address this deficiency, we have been developing a U.S.-centric business model that allows domestic investors to enter the defense and aerospace market with a much smaller and more efficient investment protocol. Instead of investing $40–$80 million upfront in a copy-paste fab facility, one can build a fab with similar capabilities to what is being done at the higher capital procurement levels for far less by focusing on more efficient process solutions.
To read the entire article, which originally appeared in the July 2024 PCB007 Magazine, click here.
Share on:
Testimonial
"Our marketing partnership with I-Connect007 is already delivering. Just a day after our press release went live, we received a direct inquiry about our updated products!"
Rachael Temple - AlltematedSuggested Items
Circus SE Set for High-Volume Market Entry in the Defense Sector
10/17/2025 | BUSINESS WIRECircus SE a global technology leader in AI robotics for autonomous nutrition systems and troop supply, is expanding its global production network as part of its high-volume market entry into the defense sector.
Molex Announces Agreement to Acquire Smiths Interconnect
10/17/2025 | MolexMolex, a leading global electronics connectivity innovator, announced that it has signed an agreement to acquire Smiths Interconnect.
I-Connect007 Editor’s Choice: Five Must-Reads for the Week
10/17/2025 | Marcy LaRont, I-Connect007Much of the news over the last week focused on the push-pull between the U.S. and China and the latter’s most recent announcement about rare earth mineral restrictions. Despite that situation, the IMF raised its growth forecast, and global markets showed cautious optimism. Then, as the U.S. attempted to retreat from all environmentally based policy and ESG gains achieved to date, the global shipping emissions pact continues to gain momentum.
China Expands Rare Earth Export Restrictions, Tightening Grip on Global Supply Chains
10/16/2025 | I-Connect007 Editorial TeamChina sharply expanded its rare earth export restrictions on Oct. 9, adding additional elements and refining technologies to its control list while imposing stricter rules on foreign users in the defense and semiconductor industries.
HANZA Wins Drone Order Under the LYNX Program
10/15/2025 | HANZAHANZA has received an initial order worth approximately SEK 40 million from a high-tech company that develops and sells drones for both civilian and defense-related applications.