The US Defense Industrial Base is optimized for a few high-cost, technologically advanced platforms. This model fails to meet the demands of modern conflicts, which require large volumes of affordable, attritable hardware to counter tactics used by adversaries in Ukraine and the Middle East.
To counter China's military-civil fusion, the US can revive its own successful WWII model. During that war, commercial companies like Ford and GM became the backbone of military production, demonstrating that deep commercial integration is key to achieving modern scalability and resilience.
The current defense model, where the designer is the sole manufacturer, creates production bottlenecks. Adopting a modular approach—where one company designs and multiple companies can manufacture, as with the WWII Jeep—is crucial for rapidly scaling production and building a resilient supply chain.
Policies to modernize the US Defense Industrial Base by integrating commercial tech already exist on paper. The primary obstacle is implementation, which faces strong resistance from established prime contractors and entrenched political and budgetary practices that favor the concentrated status quo.