The National Interest – John Turner
On January 14 the Pentagon released its annual report on the state of the U.S. defense and manufacturing industrial base. The estimated cost of the report was $159,000 USD and clocked in at 184 pages. The document, entitled US Defense Industrial Base Industrial Capabilities Report January 2021, is a congressionally-mandated, annual requirement in which the Secretary of Defense informs the armed services committees on the actions, investments, and overall health of the U.S. defense industrial base (DIB). The report is divided into nine component areas spanning the Department’s primary DIB lines of effort, the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the DIB, an overview of the U.S. defense industry, assessments of the sixteen industrial base sectors and emerging technology sectors, and overviews of the primary DIB authorities and investment mechanisms.