A Partnership Blueprint for America’s Defense Industrial Renewal

Millions in sunken costs and years behind schedule have become defining features of the U.S. defense industrial base, and this dysfunction is colliding with a radically different character of war. 

The American defense industrial base needs retooling – and fast

Asymmetric, robotic, and growingly autonomous systems — cheap to build, quick to adapt and designed to operate in coordinated swarms — no longer are theoretical. These tactics are being employed today by our adversaries. The shift in global security erodes the traditional advantages of scale, time, and mass that America’s defense industrial base was designed to deliver. It also exposes an acquisition system that cannot move at the speed of relevance.

Rewiring these trends will depend on a new posture — one that we believe should be defined by partnerships that marry the scale and sustainment power of strategic OEMs with the speed and rapid system iteration of smaller but highly capable Neo-Primes.

The New York Times Editorial Board argued in its Overmatched series that President Trump and Pentagon leadership “should push for real change, not just the appearance of it” in revamping the military. For the authors, real change starts with placing “bets on start-up companies that get results” and heavier investment in “the true sources of American strength: relentless innovation, rapid adaptability and a willingness to discard old assumptions.”  

New defense industrial players

The influx of venture capital into defense technology has given rise to bold, disruptive upstarts that are leveraging agile, product-led engineering, operator-centric design, and best practices from the commercial ecosystem. Neo-Primes rapidly iterate their systems and build breakthrough technologies on their dime — well before the U.S. government’s lengthy requirement-writing process plays out. At the same time, established OEMs have reignited their innovation arms and reprioritized significant resources to meet the modern needs of the Department of War.

Innovation without scale is as risky as the other way around. That’s why the fusion of OEMs and Neo-Primes is the best strategic framework to reshore American manufacturing and reinvigorate our nation’s defense industrial base. When brought together, this business model manifests real results.

General Dynamics Land Systems and Epirus, for example, have partnered to develop two mobile counter-UAS systems for short-range air defense and critical asset protection. Lockheed Martin and Hadrian have inked an agreement to increase production of critical parts for missile systems. Northrop Grumman has invested in Firefly Aerospace to accelerate production of the latter’s launch vehicle. The list goes on.

These OEM partnerships with Neo-Primes represent the epitome of American industrial excellence. Importantly, they also align with Secretary Pete Hegseth’s Warfighting Acquisition System by prioritizing the best practices from commercial technology development, AI integration into military technology, cloud-based architectures and system modularity, scalability, and software-driven upgradability.

A step industry is taking now

Pairing OEM know-how and production capacity with Neo-Prime integration cycles supports the War Department’s vision for rebuilding our military and is a tangible step industry can take — and is taking today — to shorten the time between prototype development and operational deployment. 

America’s competitive edge always has come from partnerships: between industry and government, between commercial and defense innovation bases and between engineers and operators. The next era of defense technology development demands the same alignment.

OEMs and Neo-Primes are not competitors in this race, nor are we advocating for competing visions for the future of defense. On the contrary, we share a mission as the co-architects of deterrence. 

When OEMs and Neo-Primes work together, scale meets speed and innovation meets integration. 

This is the industrial base the moment demands and the one we intend to build — together. 

This article was originally published by RealClearDefense and made available via RealClearWire.