In a recent report, the CRS broke down the vital questions U.S. policymakers need to be asking vis a vis the future of the U.S. Defense Industrial Base – questions which apply to all organizations strategic sensemaking as the U.S. Defense Industrial Base undergoes a transformation that overlaps with many vital industry sectors. Defining the U.S. Defense Industrial BaseThe term defense industrial base appears to have entered common parlance during the Korean War. Thus, those organizations and facilities that build submarines may be referred to as the “submarine industrial base,” those that manufacture helicopters may constitute the “rotary-wing aircraft industrial base,” and so on. 2 Terms other than the defense industrial base have also been used by policymakers, analysts, and other participants in defense policy discourse to express similar meanings (examples include the national technology and industrial base, the national security industrial base, and the military-industrial complex). For consistency, this report uses defense industrial base (abbreviated DIB or industrial base) throughout.

Source: Wall Street Journal February 25, 2024 16:35 UTC