The United States cannot rapidly surge weapons production without visibility into the lower tiers of its defense supply chain. While policymakers often focus on prime contractors, the true bottleneck lies deeper in the manufacturing base—among forge shops, specialty alloy processors, and feedstock suppliers that are largely invisible to the Department of Defense.

Key Findings

• The Department of Defense lacks a systematic, machine-readable map of sub-tier manufacturers supporting U.S. weapons production.
• Efforts to increase munitions production will fail without visibility into specialty alloy processors, feedstock sources, and component suppliers.
• Current reform initiatives improve access for manufacturers who are already known but do not identify those outside existing databases.
• Technology capable of mapping the full manufacturing base exists today, but policy frameworks to deploy it at scale do not.

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