{"id":26812,"date":"2019-01-16T21:14:03","date_gmt":"2019-01-16T21:14:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/uncategorized\/2019\/01\/16\/trump-to-use-federal-funds-to-prop-up-us-bomb-makers\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T22:57:28","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T22:57:28","slug":"trump-to-use-federal-funds-to-prop-up-us-bomb-makers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/federaltimes\/congress\/2019\/01\/16\/trump-to-use-federal-funds-to-prop-up-us-bomb-makers\/","title":{"rendered":"Trump to use federal funds to prop up US bomb makers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2014 U.S. President Donald Trump has approved direct federal investment for suppliers of American bomb parts and chemicals<\/a>, part of as much as $250 million in direct investments by the Pentagon to fix supply chain vulnerabilities, Defense News has learned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government funding for those suppliers, under the Defense Production Act, is meant to lift a subsector of the defense-industrial base that the Pentagon deems weak. It\u2019s also a significant step in broader plans<\/a> within the administration to remedy fragile markets and foreign dependencies among the military\u2019s suppliers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere will be many more of these to come to address gaps and vulnerabilities in the defense-industrial base,\u201d Peter Navarro, director of the White House Office of Trade and Industrial Policy, said in an exclusive interview Wednesday. \u201cThis is exactly what we should be doing and an example of how the administration is more attentive to the issue.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of these companies have only one customer, and they became fragile due to sequestration,\u201d Navarro said. \u201cThe need this package addresses is to move to advanced manufacturing where some of the processes in use are from 60, 70, 80 years ago.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The White House announced Wednesday that Trump signed four memos that the Pentagon would take action to strengthen the supply chain for precursor materials, inert materials, energetic materials and advanced manufacturing techniques for the production of chemicals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the latest move since more than a dozen working groups<\/a> from across government completed a study of how to reinforce gaps in the defense-industrial base.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which companies in the munitions subsector would receive the funding and how much would be available were unclear, but Navarro said the total would be in the \u201chundreds of millions, not the billions \u2014 which is a lot of money when you\u2019re targeting sub-tiers of the supply chain.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Pentagon did not immediately provide details in response to requests from Defense News.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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FILE – In this March 31, 2017 file photo, National Trade Council adviser Peter Navarro appears before President Donald Trump arrives to sign executive orders regarding trade in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington. (AP Photo\/Andrew Harnik)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ellen Lord, the Pentagon\u2019s chief weapons buyer, told reporters in December that the Pentagon plans to invest $250 million over the following 12 months to remedy industrial base weak points. The funds would be authorized through the Defense Production Act\u2019s Title III, as well as the manufacturing technology and industrial base analysis and sustainment programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Navarro said these investments would not be \u201congoing aid\u201d but more akin to \u201cventure capital and seed money\u201d to help munitions manufacturers, in some cases, make the leap to advanced manufacturing techniques.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t give away money to companies,\u201d he said. \u201cThere is a bidding process, and the winning bid will receive the seed money.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Though the Pentagon has made massive bomb purchases in recent years, suppliers have been strained by the start-and-stop nature of procurement over the last two decades and the lack of new designs being internally developed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among other issues, the Pentagon relies on single suppliers for solid-propellant rocket motors, thermal batteries and small turbine engines, while excess capacity has weakened fuze makers. For products in the second and third tiers of the munitions supply chain, 98 percent are single or sole-source.<\/p>\n\n\n\t