As John Blackburn has put it recently, if we do not pay much closer focus and care with regard to our supply chains, both civilian and military, we could find ourselves in the position of “losing with fighting.”
Air Vice Marshal (Retired) has focused much of his research and public efforts in Australia on dealing with supply chain vulnerabilities.
In a forthcoming interview, we discussed with him the concept of being in the position whereby the liberal democracies can lose without fighting to the 21st century authoritarian capitalist powers.
And apparently, the US Secretary of the Navy shares his concerns.
“The US navy secretary has warned that the “fragile” American supply chain for military warships means the Pentagon is at risk of having to rely on adversaries such as Russia and China for critical components.
Richard Spencer, the US navy’s top civilian, told the Financial Times he had ordered a review this year that found many contractors were reliant on single suppliers for certain high-tech and high-precision parts, increasing the likelihood they would have to be procured from geostrategic rivals.
Mr Spencer said the US was engaged in “great power competition” with other global rivals and that several of them — “primarily Russia and China” — were “all of a sudden in your supply chain, [which is] not to the best interests of what you’re doing” through military procurement….”
“In an effort to convince the private sector to invest in the US industrial base, Mr Spencer recently launched a “trusted capital” programme where he invited large private equity firms to bid on failing or non-existent supply needs in areas from ship maintenance to weapons manufacturing.”
For the rest of the article, see the following:
https://www.ft.com/content/b9260d54-fcf4-11e9-98fd-4d6c20050229
The featured photo: Richard Spencer’s efforts to boost the domestic supply chain have been hampered by government shutdowns and haphazard federal budgeting © Getty