Two ships under construction at a General Dynamics shipyard in Norfolk, Virginia, in May 2018. The existing “prime” defense contractors will have a role to play in future defense acquisition, but can no longer be the only players. (Shutterstock/Kate Scott)

Broadening the Defense Industrial Base Is Necessary, Not an Insult to the Primes

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“Prime” defense contractors such as Lockheed Martin and commercial industrial giants like Detroit automakers need not exist in competition; their strengths complement each other.

Recent reports that the US Department of Defense is contracting commercial manufacturing giants like Ford and General Motors (GM) to help supply military hardware has raised eyebrows across the defense sector. Yet this trend is stretching far beyond Washington. From London and Paris to Berlin, Tokyo, and Seoul, the core industrial nations of the US-aligned democratic alliance are exploring similar commercial avenues.

For some analysts, outreach to the private sector signals a frustration with traditional defense contractors—the so-called “primes”—and a rejection of their dominance over major procurement programs. However, this is an oversimplified interpretation which misreads the real concern: capacity. Though the existing landscape of defense manufacturers in NATO and its closest global partners has shown an impressive capacity to ramp up production, there is still a long way to go to meet demand, and the Western nations increasingly recognize it.

The Defense Contracting Process No Longer Meets America’s Needs

For the past three decades, defense procurement has been defined by the pursuit........

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