Restoring U.S. Industrial Agility: Nurturing Domestic UAV Supply Chains

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Editor’s Note: This piece originally appeared on Defense Opinion, click here to access the website directly.

Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) illustrate the risk of globally dispersed electronics supply chains. But they also offer an opportunity for the U.S. to reimagine World War II’s “freedom’s forge” by building domestic electronics and component manufacturing that is hardwired for agility, speed, scalability and resilience.

Designed to be produced rapidly and fielded in volume, so-called attritable UAVs are lower-cost, expendable yet capable drones. Common uses include intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, as well as air power support and strike missions. They are a critical tool in the U.S. arsenal.

UAV production today is highly globalized and often built around lean, just-in-time electronics supply chains that rely significantly on China and other Asian countries for critical components. These include ultra high-density interconnect printed circuit boards, commercial-off-the-shelf electronic components, sensors and flat panel displays.

U.S production for key UAV electronic components, airframes and propulsion systems remains fragmented, with limited capacity for rapid surge. Long acquisition cycles, foreign-source dependence and shortages of skilled electronics manufacturing talent exacerbate the challenges to scale up production.

In the event of a conflict, this dependence on global suppliers, including those in adversarial nations, would blindside the military’s ability to have eyes in the sky.

Freedom’s Forge 2.0

A glance back some eight decades ago to the U.S. industrial surge during World War II reveals important lessons for today on how Freedom’s Forge enabled the country to rapidly mobilize manufacturing to equip its warfighters:

Distributed manufacturing: The U.S. had a vast onshore industrial base with regional clusters aligned by function.

• Unified mobilization: Centralized coordination existed under national leadership.
• Standardization and modularity: Common parts enabled massive volume. The modern equivalent to this is open modular architecture, which is a product or system built from independent, interchangeable parts that connect using publicly available, standardized interfaces.
• Industrial incentives: Long-term contracts and investment assurance created industry confidence.
• Workforce activation: The government supported large-scale training and the conversion of civilian skills into defense production roles.

Freedom’s Forge cannot be recreated today. In World War II, our manufacturing equipment and weapon systems were largely analog. Today’s capabilities are heavily dependent on sophisticated electronics components that we no longer manufacture at scale in the U.S. due to a limited and fragmented domestic industrial base and fragile global electronics supply chains.

However, Freedom’s Forge can be reimagined as a cross-sector mobilization model starting with attritable UAVs.

A Public-Private Partnership Model

The model’s foundation would be a public-private effort to rebuild trusted electronics supply chains. The key is establishing regional production clusters to assemble and produce UAVs. The use of digital twins and model-based systems engineering will enable a rapid design-to-production transition.

Manufacturers must be incentivized to participate through a coordinated policy and contract framework that covers assured suppliers, multi-year and rapid contracting, visibility into the source of a product’s components and scalable prototyping pathways. Targeted public and private investments in partnership with the U.S. government would share the risk with industry and enable new or expanded manufacturing capacity with a clear path to long-term return on investment.

Capacity, however, is meaningless without capability. Production of UAV electronic components and composite structures requires highly skilled workers. It also demands major capital investment in specialized equipment and facilities, along with process know-how that today is largely concentrated overseas.

The U.S. needs to tackle all three – workforce, tools and technical know-how – by reinvigorating technician programs, expanding academic and industry partnerships, and supporting investments that rebuild advanced manufacturing capability for domestic UAV production.

Freedom’s Forge proved that industrial strength wins wars. Current U.S. dependency on fragile global electronics supply chains for attritable UAVs and other defense systems puts that strength in the hands of potential adversaries.

Rebuilding domestic electronics and UAV manufacturing that is fast, scalable, agile and resilient gives the U.S. the industrial muscle it needs for deterrence and victory in future conflicts.