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Five years ago, Congress provided guidance to the Pentagon to create a plan to remove Chinese, Russian, Iranian, and North Korean content from critical defense supply chains: certainly adequate time for this important work to be done.
As the January 1, 2027, deadline approaches the Pentagon is now in the process of rulemaking and has collected comments from interested parties. The Printed Circuit Board Association of America (PCBAA) provided input making it clear that there is no more time to waste to bolster the American printed circuit board (PCB) industry.
Numerous studies by the DoD and other agencies have documented the critical need to strengthen domestic PCB and printed circuit board assembly manufacturing to ensure a secure and reliable supply chain of these critical technology components.
“The Department of War needs access to the best commercial technology. We disagree that the way to get it is to widen a loophole large enough for Chinese parts to slip through,” said PCBAA Executive Director, David Schild.
Calls to delay implementation will lock the U.S. in continued dangerous dependency on other nations, primarily China.
While the U.S. debates about this issue, China and other Asian nations are investing billions in PCB manufacturing, including the most complex PCBs needed for AI and other high-end applications.
The Pentagon should hold fast to the deadline and continue work on incentives and policies that reshore and restore this critical industry. The DIB needs trusted and secure microelectronics, regardless of whether they are in commercial dual use products or pure defense systems. Security matters.
“Congress told the Pentagon five years ago to eliminate our reliance on foreign PCBs, and this rule is the Department's first real attempt to do it," said Schild. "Congress could not have been clearer: every month of delay is a month our warfighters remain dependent on components we cannot trust.”
