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05 Dec 24. China Increasing Interest in Strategic Arctic Region. The Arctic strategic environment is changing profoundly, and the United States must pay greater attention and dedicate more resources to this crucial area, said Iris A. Ferguson, the deputy assistant secretary of defense for Arctic and Global Resilience.
Ferguson addressed the increased attention that the People’s Republic of China has in the Arctic. She spoke at the Center for Strategic and International Studies today.
China is, by no means, an Arctic nation. But Chinese leaders see the region as a new crossroads of the world, a new source of raw materials and new avenues for manifesting its growing power.
China is working closely with Russia in its attempt to be seen as an Arctic power, Ferguson said. Even with Russia’s unjust war on Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin is investing heavily on military and economic strategies in the Arctic. “We’re seeing Russia continue to have immense focus on the Arctic region, and it’s part of their … security calculus, vis-a-vis the U.S. and NATO,” Ferguson said. “Despite the attrition in Ukraine, we still see them … heavily focused on the region.”
A shifting climate is speeding the pace of change in the region. “Climate change is still a factor in the region, where the region warms at some four times the rate of the rest of the world,” she said. This means more access for settlements in the high North and more chances for what she calls “competitor activity.”
” is one of the newer entrants on the scene,” Ferguson said. “Over time, the strategic interests that they have in the region are … giving us pause. How their long-term vision for the region could affect our interests, is giving us pause.”
Even more disturbing is the increasing levels of collaboration between Russia and China especially in the military domain, she said. Russia and China exercised together in the Bering Strait in summer of 2023. “Just this past summer, right after we released our department strategy, we saw a joint bomber patrol off of the coast of Alaska.”
There has also been increasing cooperation between the Chinese and Russian coast guards in the region. “This kind of increasing levels of military cooperation is new,” she said. “Certainly, it’s new within and around Alaska.”
The new DOD Arctic strategy is aimed at preserving the region as a place that is both stable and secure, Ferguson said. She also discussed the Defense Department’s three main lines of effort in the region. The first is enhancing domain awareness to see and detect threats, and to ensure U.S. forces can operate in the region effectively.
“We’re also really focused on engaging with our allies and partners,” she said. These nations are a unique U.S. strategic advantage that stretches from the border of European Russia to the Bering Strait. These are “seven like-minded partners that are incredibly militarily capable and also have heavy geostrategic alignment with us,” she said.
Finally, the United States is working on using military exercises in the region. “We’ve long had exercises that operate in the region, but we’re really looking at how we can use those as a deterrent effect, working alongside our allies and partners,” she said.
There’s an evolution in how competitors think about the region, Ferguson said. “We’re going to continue on the DOD side to monitor military activity.”
But this attention cannot be just limited to that. The Chinese are using other aspects of their national power to insinuate themselves into the region. China is involved in scientific and research projects in the region. China is looking to establish economic ties within the Arctic. “We really just need to be clear-eyed about some of their intentions and, how we can be like thinking about their long-term interests and, how we can best protect ours,” Ferguson said. (Source: BUSINESS WIRE)
05 Dec 24. Air Force defers NGAD decision to Trump administration. The Air Force will keep maturing the technology for a potential sixth-generation NGAD fighter, but will let the Trump administration decide how to proceed. (U.S. Air Force)
The Air Force has decided to let the incoming Trump administration make its own decision on the path forward for its Next Generation Air Dominance fighter.
This summer, the Air Force paused its effort to develop and build a sixth-generation fighter amid concerns about its potential costs and began rethinking what it will need for a future war.
The review sparked by that decision includes reconsidering what the Air Force needs to maintain air superiority in a war against a major adversary such as China and redesigning NGAD to lower its costs — perhaps to lower than those of an F-35. The decision on how to proceed with NGAD was originally expected by the end of December.
On Thursday, however, the service announced outgoing Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall will not decide how to proceed with NGAD. Instead, the Department of the Air Force will continue its analysis and keep options open for the next administration.
The Air Force also said it is extending its current contracts with firms to mature NGAD’s technology and reduce risk, to keep industry teams intact and allow systems and designs to further progress. The service declined to provide more details on those contracts, including their value, how long they will be extended and who they are to. Lockheed Martin and Boeing are believed to be the leading contenders to build NGAD, although Northrop Grumman may reconsider its decision to bow out of the program depending on how the Air Force’s strategy shifts.
The service is also asking industry to update its schedule and milestone proposals to account for these delays.
The Air Force’s highly classified NGAD program aims to replace the fifth-generation F-22 Raptor fleet sometime in the 2030s. The service envisions the crewed NGAD fighter as the core of a “family of systems” that would also include autonomous drone wingmen known as collaborative combat aircraft. It would also have a cutting-edge adaptive engine that could switch to the most efficient configuration, as well as advanced sensors, weaponry and data connectivity technology.
The Air Force originally planned to award a contract for NGAD in 2024, but that effort was likewise put on hold.
But after rumors spread earlier this year that NGAD was in budgetary trouble, Kendall said in an interview with Defense News that the program needed a redesign to bring its costs under control.
In that June interview, Kendall said the original price projections for NGAD were running about three times the price of an F-35, which cost between $82 million and $109 million apiece depending on the model. At that price point, Kendall said, the Air Force would only be able to buy a small number of NGAD fighters.
“The family of systems concept of Next Generation Air Dominance is alive and well,” Kendall said at the time. “I can tell you that we are looking at the NGAD platform design concept to see if it’s the right concept or not. … We’re looking at whether we can do something that’s less expensive and do some trade-offs there.”
At the Defense News Conference in September, Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Jim Slife said the Air Force is also rethinking how it will achieve air superiority in a highly contested environment, and noted that may not be the same thing as figuring out how to build a sixth-generation fighter platform.
The Air Force also wanted the potential NGAD redesign to better incorporate recent technology advancements such as collaborative combat aircraft.
But it remains uncertain what President-elect Donald Trump’s victory will mean for the military’s approach to air superiority. Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, who Trump named to head a Department of Government Efficiency advisory panel, have each expressed skepticism over the value of crewed fighters in a future war.
Musk said in a series of tweets in November that “manned fighter jets are obsolete in the age of drones” and called those who build crewed fighters like the F-35 “idiots.”
Ramaswamy also said at the Aspen Security Forum in Washington on Wednesday that the U.S. should be investing more in drones and hypersonic missiles than “new kinds of fighter jets or whatever, that aren’t the highest” return on investment.
The Air Force told Defense News it has enough money to keep funding technology maturation and risk reduction for NGAD, and that the effort to build CCAs will continue uninterrupted.
(Source: Defense News)
05 Dec 24. Air Force Works to Keep Nuclear Triad Mission Ready During Recapitalization. The Air Force is working to meet the challenge of maintaining mission readiness for bomber and land-based missile legs of the nation’s nuclear triad, while at the same time working to meet the government-mandated recapitalization of both those platforms.
That was one of the central messages Air Force Global Strike Command’s most senior leader, Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere, shared during an interview this morning at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
“The world is more dangerous now than it’s been in my career,” said Bussiere. “Coupled with that, we now have the recapitalization of the entire nuclear triad. So, the challenge ahead is … maintaining our current strategic deterrence posture while we field new capabilities.”
“And we have to maintain full operational capability while we do that,” he continued.
Composed of land-based intercontinental ballistic missile wings and strategic bombers that both fall under the Air Force’s authority — as well as multiple submarine-launched ballistic missiles that are the responsibility of the Navy — the nuclear triad exists to provide around-the-clock deterrence to prevent catastrophic actions from U.S. adversaries.
The recapitalization of the nuclear triad seeks to upgrade the Navy’s fleet with the new Columbia-class ballistic missile submarine; to deliver new bomber capabilities, such as the B-21 Raider; and replace the aging Minuteman III ICBM with the new Sentinel.
“A lot of folks will look at the strategic triad and go, ‘Why are we doing this? We’re never going to use it,'” Bussiere said. “, we use it every day,” he added, emphasizing the importance of keeping the triad fully mission capable.
While noting that maintaining full operational capability of a force structure like the nuclear triad during a full recapitalization is something that’s never been done, Bussiere said that maintaining such a balancing act is all thanks to the men, women and institutions that work hard to accomplish the mission.
” a testament to our airmen; a testament to our families that support our airmen it’s a testament to the communities around our installations that support our airmen and their families,” Bussiere said.
He added that the Air Force, the Defense Department and senior leaders in Congress have also been very supportive of AFGSC’s mission to operate and participate in the modernization of the nuclear triad. (Source: U.S. DoD)
04 Dec 24. US Navy at risk of failing critical amphibious assault mission. A GAO report has found 50% of the US Navy’s amphibious assault fleet is in poor condition, with the service cutting maintenance on vessels.
The US Navy’s amphibious assault force is failing to provide enough vessels for use by the US Marine Corps, with half of the fleet in poor condition and some ships having been unavailable for years at a time, according to a report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO).
As of March 2024, half of the amphibious fleet “is in poor condition” and these ships were “not on track to meet their expected service lives”, the GAO report revealed.
While the US Navy and Marine Corps were working to agree on a ship availability goal, they had yet to complete a metrics-based analysis in support of the work, which the GAO states risked jeopardising the ability to align amphibious ship schedules with the USMC units that deploy on them.
“To save money, the Navy proposed early retirement for some ships and cancelled critical maintenance,” the GAO stated. “But the Navy is still relying on these ships—which haven’t been well-maintained—while it waits for new ones to be built. As a result, it will be hard to continue meeting the 31-ship requirement.”
There are currently 32 amphibious warfare ships in the fleet, one more than the minimum the US Navy is statutorily required to maintain.
US Navy cancelled planned maintenance
The GAO report identified factors that had contributed to the fleet’s “poor condition and reduced its availability for Marine Corps’ operations and training”, including spare parts challenges, reliability of ship systems, and cancelled maintenance.
Critically, the GAO found that the US Navy cancelled maintenance for ageing amphibious ships it planned to divest before completing the required waiver process.
In a bid to meet its 31-ship requirement moving forward, the US Navy was considering extending the service life for some ships. However, the GAO reported that such efforts would require up to $1bn per ship in funding, with six ships needing service life extensions in the next three decades amid rising ship construction costs and maintenance backlogs.
Much of the proposed solutions involved effective metric-based analysis to define amphibious ship availability goals, and updates to US Navy policy to clarify that it should not cancel maintenance when divesting ships before completing the waiver process, for vessels that had not yet fulfilled their expected service life.
From San Antonio, to America, Wasp, and more
On paper, the US Navy’s amphibious warfare fleet is a potent force, comprising the Wasp– and America-class amphibious assault ships.
Up to 11 America-class amphibious assault ships are planned, with two currently in service and a further two in build, including the first of the Flight I variants (USS Bourgainville and USS Fallujah), which will include a well deck. Ships 1 and 2 in the America class (USS America and USS Tripoli), dubbed Flight 0, do not include a well deck.
A total of eight Wasp-class vessels, officially classified as landing helicopter docks (LHD) were built, although the USS Bonhomme Richard was scrapped in 2021 after sustaining significant damage in a fire while undergoing maintenance.
In addition, the San Antonio-class amphibious transport docks augment the troop-carrying capability, with 13 vessels in service and several more on order or in build.
The US Navy’s LSD fleet such as the Harpers Ferry class, pictured is USS Carter Hall, is in poor material condition. Credit: US Navy
Other classes such as the 1990s-era Harpers Ferry-class dock landing ships (four vessels in service), and the older Whidbey Island-class LSDs, fill out the US Navy’s amphibious assault and transport capability.
The GAO report indicates the LSD fleet in particular is suffering significantly, with nine of the ten vessels in poor material condition. (Source: naval-technology.com)
04 Dec 24. DOD Leverages Defense Production Act to Galvanize Critical Supply Chains. In the shadow of Coosa County, Alabama’s pine-strewn hills, and across Nome, Alaska’s rugged expanse, the Defense Department is mounting a strategic response to an urgent security challenge. Beneath these two distinct landscapes lie the BamaStar Graphite Project and the Graphite Creek deposit, which anchor efforts to rebuild America’s graphite production enterprise — an undertaking critical to our military’s lithium-ion batteries. These projects, supported by Defense Production Act funding, are part of a broader push to address vulnerabilities in the defense industrial base that leave the nation exposed to supply chain disruptions and adversarial influence.
For decades, the United States has been almost entirely dependent on foreign sources for graphite — a key component in the batteries that power electric vehicles, military energy systems, and other technologies central to modern life. China, which produces 77% of the world’s graphite and refines more than 90%, dominates the market. As geopolitical tensions rise, this reliance has become a glaring weakness. The 2022 Defense Department report titled “Securing Defense-Critical Supply Chains” underscores the gravity of the issue, stating:
“To defend the nation and deter America’s adversaries, the Defense Department works to ensure that our armed forces have reliable access to every advantage. Meeting that mission requires a healthy DIB (defense industrial base) built on resilient, diverse and secure supply chains.”
The United States has taken bold steps to secure its graphite supply. In February 2021, Biden’s Executive Order 14017 catalyzed a comprehensive review of critical supply chains, with graphite standing out as a priority. China’s 2023 export restrictions on graphite heightened the urgency, sending shockwaves through industries reliant on the mineral and underscoring the department’s efforts to mitigate risk.
Laura Taylor-Kale, assistant secretary of defense for Industrial Base Policy, who also holds a doctorate in management science and engineering, emphasized during an October 2024 briefing that world events demand a long-term shift in defense industrial strategy. “We have seen how quickly we need to ramp up capacity in response to conflict,” she said. “World events have forced us to prepare for the long-term and plan differently.” Taylor-Kale also highlighted the historic scope of investments in key sectors to bolster supply chains, describing them as catalysts for a myriad of additional programs and partnerships.
Initially designed to address wartime emergencies, the DPA has evolved into a powerful tool for long-term industrial planning. Under its Title III authorities, the department has directed funds to projects like the BamaStar Graphite Project, which received $3.2 m for a feasibility study on creating a fully domestic graphite production pipeline.
Meanwhile, Alaska’s Graphite Creek, the largest known graphite deposit in America, received a $37.5 m award to accelerate development of a vertically integrated supply chain that includes advanced manufacturing and recycling. These projects represent just one part of a broader initiative to address vulnerabilities in the DIB.
These investments reflect a strategic shift in how the department approaches supply chain security. Though historically reactive, the department is now prioritizing prudence, aligning industrial capacity with future needs rather than immediate crises. This shift extends beyond stockpiling raw materials, as it focuses on building infrastructure, partnerships and policies to ensure sustained resilience.
Unveiled in October 2024, the National Defense Industrial Strategy Implementation Plan, is a key framework for this strategic approach. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Resilience Carla Zeppieri summarized its six initiatives, emphasizing the need for urgency and collaboration. One of the initiatives focuses on “managing defense production and supply chains,” which includes onshoring defense-critical capabilities and enhancing cybersecurity. Zeppieri pointed to the importance of mitigating risks like single points of failure within supply chains, particularly for specialized components vital to military technologies.
The NDIS-IP focuses on allied collaboration is another highlight. “We will leverage our respective strengths into a network of allied DIB capability for mutual effectiveness and resilience,” Zeppieri noted. The framework aligns with the department’s integrated deterrence strategy, especially in the Indo-Pacific region, where adversarial influence on critical materials poses a growing threat.
During the same briefing, Taylor-Kale addressed the broader implications of this strategy “Integrated deterrence, economic security, national security and our nation’s military strength are mutually reinforcing,” she said. The assistant secretary also emphasized the department’s commitment to measuring progress through a risk framework and detailed metrics in a forthcoming classified annex.
The investments are already yielding results. The $37.5m DPA investment in Graphite Creek has catalyzed plans for a $435m processing facility and investments in other critical sectors, such as rare earth magnets and microelectronics, have spurred private-sector interest and innovation. Taylor-Kale championed these investments as examples for how “capital allocation today” translates into “exponential gains in resiliency and sustainment tomorrow.”
Supply chain disruptions — from cyberattacks to natural disasters — highlight the interconnectedness of commercial and defense supply chains. Addressing vulnerabilities is a long-term endeavor. “The ripple effects of today’s investments demonstrate how tens of ms of dollars in today’s industrial base investments become hundreds of ms or even bns in resiliency and sustainment,” Taylor-Kale explained.
While challenges — ranging from high costs to regulatory hurdles — remain significant, the department is committed to driving forward. In a July 2023 address, Taylor-Kale framed the stakes succinctly: “Graphite is essential to the national defense. Our investments today are about ensuring resilience and security for tomorrow.”
By leveraging tools like the DPA and fostering public and private collaboration, the United States is reasserting its leadership in critical materials and technologies. These efforts not only address immediate vulnerabilities but also lay the foundation for a more secure and prosperous future. As Taylor-Kale noted during the NDIS-IP briefing, “The evolution from strategy to implementation required lengthy discussions with key players, ensuring a unified collaboration among our partners. This marks a first for defense industrial policy.”
The road ahead demands unwavering commitment and strategic foresight to transform today’s challenges into tomorrow’s opportunities. But in a speech delivered at the SelectUSA Investment Summit last summer, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks emphasized the sincerity with which the department regards sustainment resilience. “We care more than ever before about the security and resilience of our supply chains,” she said.
28 Nov 24. US lawmakers urge DoD to ground V-22 Ospreys. The incidents involving the vehicle have increased over the last five years, despite a reduction in the number of hours flown. Democratic lawmakers from Massachusetts have urged US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to ground the entire fleet of Bell Boeing V-22 Ospreys until persistent safety issues are resolved.
The lawmakers are also pushing for the Department of Defense (DoD) to release the Safety Investigation Board’s report, which contains findings and recommendations to address the V-22’s challenges.
The V-22 Osprey, a joint service multirole combat aircraft that uses tiltrotor technology, combining the vertical performance of a helicopter with the speed and range of a fixed-wing aircraft.
In an open letter, the lawmakers cited the Associated Press report about increase in incidents involving the vehicle over the last five years, despite a reduction in the number of hours flown.
In January 2024, Subcommittee on Personnel chair and US Senator Elizabeth Warren secured commitments at the DoD, to ensure transparency and integrity to protect service members’ safety.
Following scrutiny and training, the US Marine Corps in April greenlit the return of MV-22 Ospreys, prioritising safety and mission readiness.
In June, the Subcommittee on National Security, the Border, and Foreign Affairs held a hearing titled ‘Addressing Oversight and Safety Concerns in the Department of Defense’s V-22 Osprey Programme.’
Members discussed how DoD officials have obstructed congressional efforts to investigate the string of Osprey crashes involving US servicemembers.
(Source: naval-technology.com)
29 Nov 24. Project Olympus Forges Critical Digital Pathways to Enable Interoperability. The Defense Department is moving rapidly toward the future of warfare in which decision advantage will reign as the decisive factor in deterring conflict, and when needed, defeating adversaries.
Military leaders have long recognized the imperative to maintain the information edge in an increasingly complex and distributed global security landscape.
Earlier this year, DOD announced it had reached a minimum viable capability of Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control, the department’s approach to providing material and nonmaterial solutions to arm front-line commanders with rapid access to actionable battlefield information across all warfighting domains and throughout the globe.
The capability represents not only a force multiplier for the Joint Force but will also provide the foundation for ever increasing interoperability between the U.S. and global network of allies and partners.
That ability to work seamlessly across warfighting domains and theaters with a range of partners is key to maintaining the United States’ enduring strength around the globe. It remains a prime focus among military leaders that shape how the U.S. plans, trains and fights.
But achieving the reality of seamless integration for CJADC2 between the U.S. and its broad range of partners is not without its challenges.
Disparate technologies among forces along with policy hurdles have presented a perennial challenge for integrating partner nations onto a single network.
Project Olympus, a Joint Staff J-6-led initiative, is working to solve these challenges through digital transformation initiatives that synchronize current warfighting capabilities and enhanced security frameworks that manage access to data at the end-user level.
“Project Olympus is a concept that was formed in the Joint Staff based on lessons learned from previous events that we’ve done with capabilities employing new technology, such as zero trust and data centric security which is really focused on access control to data based on specific attributes to somebody’s identity,” said Fred Stanley, the Coalition Interoperability Division Chief within the Joint Staff Deputy Directorate for Command, Control, Communications and Computer (C4)/ Cyber Integration.
Members of Project Olympus work alongside international partners to test, develop and integrate capabilities critical to CJADC2 through iterative experiments and demonstrations.
Over the past couple of years, Project Olympus participated in a series of demonstrations and events involving a range of participants including U.S. Central Command, U.S. Transportation Command Joint Communications Support Element and partner forces from the U.K., among others.
This year, Project Olympus is focused on implementing its first-ever mission partner environment architecture on a live network that will support a U.K.-led maritime mission spanning multiple U.S. combatant commands and involving 16 international partners.
The new security frameworks being demonstrated as part of Project Olympus move the U.S. and partner forces beyond traditional network security methods, allowing for agile and targeted access to critical information on an integrated network.
“We’ve historically looked at security as the antithesis for information sharing,” said Jim Knight, the U.K. lead for Project Olympus during a demonstration last month. “The security folks come in and want to sort of clamp down. With zero trust and data centric security, they are security mechanisms, but they are enabling information sharing.”
“I think that’s a key focus point,” he said. “For the first time, we’re getting that balance right in terms of applying more security. And by applying more security, we’re getting greater information sharing.”
Knight said what Project Olympus is demonstrating goes beyond technology.
“It’s a paradigm shift,” he said. “We’re moving from not only securing our networks at the boundary, having high castle walls… but we’re also applying security and information sharing to individual data objects.”
Project Olympus’ success is forged through consistent test and evaluation of capabilities in complex scenarios involving a dynamic array of capabilities and partner forces.
In October, members of Project Olympus took part in the latest iteration of Bold Quest — a Joint Staff-sponsored multinational demonstration and assessment that provides a proving ground for new technology and warfighting concepts.
During the demonstration, hosted at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina, military participants and observers from allied and partner nations gathered to evaluate technical and procedural means of working together across strategic, operational and tactical levels in all domains.
This approach expedites learning and adaptation. By regularly collaborating, coalition partners can identify and address gaps in technology and policy before they create critical risk in real-world crises.
“Interoperability is crucial long before a crisis takes place. Waiting for a crisis to bring partners together is unacceptable,” Stanley said, adding that “we need to be able to bring our partners in at the ground floor.”
Demonstrations like Bold Quest underscore the importance of iterative demonstrations and assessments to push boundaries and foster a culture of true interoperability.
“We have to keep doing exercises or events, not once a year but multiple times, to continue pushing the boundary,” said Army Chief Warrant Officer 2 Andrew Cavanagh, a Project Olympus representative from U.S. Transcom’s Joint Communications Support Element.
That same sense of a need to continually innovate resonates throughout the department.
Last year, in a keynote address titled “The Urgency to Innovate,” Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks spoke to cloud computing’s necessity in implementing CJADC2.
She said digital foundations, like those being developed by Project Olympus, are helping realize Combined Joint All Domain Command and Control.
“This is not a platform or single system that we’re buying,” Hicks said. “It’s a whole set of concepts, technologies, policies, and talent that’s advancing … command and control.” (Source: U.S. DoD)
01 Dec 24. Select Committee on the CCP Holds Defense Industrial Base Simulation. Members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party recently participated in a bipartisan, interactive simulation run by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) on the state of the U.S. Defense Industrial Base. CSIS’s Defense and Security Department experts led the lawmakers through a simulation of a Taiwan conflict in the Indo-Pacific and discussed ways Congress, in a bipartisan manner, can revitalize and reconfigure America’s defense industrial base to deter and be prepared for such an event. The simulation demonstrated that the U.S. defense industrial base is woefully ill-equipped to support U.S. military requirements in the event of a conflict with China. Among the troubling results were:
• Munitions: The US and Taiwan ran low on critical munitions in a matter of days. Among the critical munitions most impacted were LRASMs, Taiwan’s Anti-Ship Cruise Missiles, and JASSM-ER.
• Ships: The US faced crippling losses, including 2 aircraft carriers, 15 large surface combatants, 3 attack submarines, and 2 amphibious ships.
• Aircraft: US airpower also faced heavy losses, with between 250-455 4th and 5th generation fighter aircraft destroyed and up to 30 B-21 bombers lost.
The simulation determined that at current production capacity, the US defense industrial base would effectively not be able to replace these losses. Though the Chinese military also sustained heavy losses, its superior defense industrial base, and in particular, its shipbuilding capacity (230 times greater than the US’) was far better positioned able to backfill losses. Click here for the full findings from the simulation.
(Source: glstrade.com)
02 Dec 24. Trade restrictions will raise compliance risks for tech sector, increase risks to supply chains. Later on 2 December, the US will begin restricting exports to 140 companies in an attempt to crack down on China’s semiconductor industry. The package includes curbs on shipments of chips, software tools and related manufacturing equipment. The move is considered one of the most significant efforts yet undertaken by the Biden administration to limit Beijing’s technological advancements in areas that could threaten US national security. On 29 November, US trade officials announced new tariffs on solar panel imports from multiple countries in Southeast Asia. Both measures are expected to be kept in place by the incoming administration under President-elect Donald Trump. Trump has also pledged to place additional tariffs on a range of sectors to protect workers from foreign companies that sell products below production costs in the US (a practice known as ‘dumping’). We assess that trade controls will most likely be placed on the defence, energy and tech sectors, increasing compliance risks. Controls placed by the US will likely have a knock-on effect for firms outside of the US jurisdiction, placing additional risks on supply chain continuity. (Source: Sibylline)
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