The U.S. defense industrial base today faces a critical minerals challenge—one with serious national security implications.
On August 4, media reports indicated that a major U.S. defense contractor is, for the first time, planning to source germanium and scandium—critical minerals used to build high-end defense items—from American firms. Here’s the problem: the prospective supplier does not have an operational mine—and will not until at least 2028. To highlight the scope of this challenge, consider the fact that the United States has not mined scandium since the 1960s.
Critical minerals are vital elements used in numerous defense platforms: warships, stealth bombers, fighter jets, missiles, sensors, and radars. Today the United States is import-reliant when it comes to critical minerals. China accounts for 90 percent of worldwide refining and processing capacity and is the top global refiner for 19 of 20 strategic minerals especially relevant to defense production.
Beijing’s critical minerals dominance is a threat to the national security of the United States and must end. For that reason, Washington is seeking to curtail critical mineral imports from China. It is also working to stockpile its own critical minerals. To that end, the Trump administration ordered the creation of the U.S. Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve, or Project Vault, in February—a logical complement to America’s existing petroleum and uranium strategic reserves.
To create viable domestic stockpiles, the United States has looked beyond its borders. The Trump administration has recently signed nearly 20 bilateral framework deals, and created multilateral forums like Pax Silica designed to form U.S.-friendly critical minerals supply chains. Washington is right to pursue a multilateral approach to U.S. critical minerals security, but there are better ways to do so.
Relying on partners’ reserves to meet U.S. demand, however, is problematic. For reasons of geography alone, even the most U.S.-friendly countries cannot be relied upon to supply the United States’ needs in a true crisis.
The geostrategic vulnerabilities are glaring. The United States signed a critical minerals deal in 2023 with Mongolia, a landlocked country surrounded by China and Russia. Similarly, Kazakhstan, a Pax Silica member, shares long and arguably indefensible borders with both China and Russia. And the COVID-19 pandemic, Iran, and the Houthis have exposed the extant fragility of global supply chains more broadly.
During a great power conflict, depending on global shipping would become problematic—potentially jeopardizing America’s ability to import critical minerals. Key sea lines of communication (SLOCs) through chokepoints like Asia’s Strait of Malacca and Europe’s Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom Gap would be threatened by U.S. adversaries. Imagine the United States, in World War II, having to import defense production items through the same waters where it was fighting the German Navy.
Even in peacetime, overseas sources have perils. The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), which has large cobalt, nickel, and lithium reserves, has become a focal point of U.S. critical minerals strategy. Washington likely seeks to counter China’s own strategic mining in the DRC. However, the country’s track record of corruption and instability—including its recent yearslong war with Rwanda—makes it a risky bet for U.S. sourcing.
Fortunately, low-cost alternatives are emerging. The Trump administration, on July 30, gave the Commerce Department authority to impose export controls on industrial waste, which is often shipped abroad despite containing recoverable minerals. Extracting those critical minerals requires considerable technical capacity and expertise—which is where America’s allies can help.
Washington should consider forming a critical minerals consortium with friendly countries to boost American extraction, recycling, and reprocessing capacity. Pooling that technology and know-how would accelerate the U.S. Strategic Critical Minerals Reserve’s progress. In exchange, the United States could offer mutually beneficial defense arrangements. Such inducements can include new or expanded joint research and development (R&D) projects and defense co-production.
The timing is auspicious: several major U.S. bilateral defense pacts are up for renewal. For example, the next version of the soon-to-expire U.S.-Greek Mutual Defense Cooperation Agreement could leverage Greece’s new advances in refining gallium. Currently, China enjoys a near-monopoly on gallium, which is reportedly used in over 11,000 U.S. military components. The upcoming expiration of the U.S.-Israel Memorandum of Understanding presents another opportunity. Israel is making significant advances in neodymium-iron-boron recycling and accelerating state-backed critical minerals research.
This approach has several advantages. First, reducing U.S. dependence on foreign-based mining hedges against potential supply disruption. Second, utilizing cheap and plentiful American materials—like industrial waste—would boost U.S. stockpiles at low expense. Third, harnessing partners’ existing R&D efforts would reduce private-sector research costs. That could stimulate industry interest in those U.S. critical minerals projects for which, as Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) recently said, “no free market [demand] exists.”
With challenges come opportunities. By better leveraging its partners and allies in the critical minerals race, Washington can breathe new life into its defense industrial base. The United States is, unfortunately, in another interwar period; it is time to act accordingly.
MajGen Tracy King, USMC (ret.) is former Commander of Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa, and a Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA) Generals and Admirals Program Participant. MajGen King also has served as Director of Asia Strategy on the Joint Staff.
Yoni Tobin is a Senior Policy Analyst at JINSA.
image: Germanium and Scandium
This article was originally published by RealClearDefense and made available via RealClearWire.
If we don’t import our way out, we’ll just have to do less with less.
At least until the next infinite physics break throughs or actual Unicorn Flatulence couples with Unobtanium.
Given that the critical minerals were for military hardware, what would less mean?
Authored by a military man.
unfortunately
sigh!
another interwar period
so Iran is not at war with the US and the world
Nostalgia for the good old days of World War I and World War II I suppose, so tedious to think about the exciting days of 9/11
I think there is a yearning in the US for the time after WWII when all other countries were bombed into oblivion or developing nations and the US was factory and center of the world.
That’s probably the great again in maga. Sadly for them the world moves on and their politics just speed up their own decline.
Similar in the UK, but when the true right-wing parties are in power, the decline will halt, and we can start on the long road back to being Great Britain again.
Not with the US. Otherwise, the US Government would have to pay greater benefits to the families of those killed in the not-war with Iran resulting in the deaths of US armed forces personnel.
Iran doesn’t seem to be at war with the world. As a matter of fact, the majority of the world’s population have expressed a desire to return to the situation prior to the cowardly and devious attack on Iran while pretending to hold “peace talks* by the US, at the behest of the Jewish State of Israel (which has only been around since 1947 or so, unlike Iran, which has a long rich history, and is one of the oldest cradles of civilisation).
The rest of the world seems to be sitting around waiting for the US to do what it has done in the past – declare victory and flee in panic.
Rare earths and the like are not actually rare. But they are very expensive to process in an environmentally responsible way. China doesn’t care, so built its processing economic monopoly. They used it to bankrupt the Mountain Pass RE mine/processing facility not once, but twice.
The answer is to tariff the bejesus out of China exports of critical materials, and build one or more alternative supply chains. They do not all have to be domestic. Think Australia and Greenland. Think South America.
A good part of the ‘critical minerals’ crisis is because of the push to Net Zero and electrical cars and would just go away if we forget about that.
If only. But not correct. See the comment just below.
I’m in favor of using what Net Zero assets that are in use for recycling vital materials. There’s a goodly amount of RE magnets in windmills and EVs.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the concept of an EV is good, the implementation using liquid lithium batteries is bad. I prefer internal combustion over external combustion.
Development of recycling solar panels would be good for the avoiding the future environmental disaster awaiting us.
For the record, Rud is the first one to mention ‘Rare earths”. That term did not appear in the article above or come up on ctrl-f. IF thats what the mystery elements are, then
”
Element name Symbol Typical application highlights
Lanthanum La Optical glass, camera lenses, catalysts
Cerium Ce Catalytic converters, fuel additives, glass polishing
Praseodymium Pr High-performance magnets, aerospace alloys, lasers
Neodymium Nd NdFeB magnets for EV motors, wind turbines
Promethium Pm Research applications, nuclear batteries
Samarium Sm SmCo magnets, nuclear control systems
Europium Eu Red and blue phosphors in displays
Gadolinium Gd MRI contrast materials, neutron shielding
Terbium Tb Green phosphors, magnetostrictive alloys
Dysprosium Dy High-temperature magnets
Holmium Ho Magnetic field applications, lasers
Erbium Er Fiber-optic communication amplifiers
Thulium Tm Portable X-ray equipment
Ytterbium Yb Specialty alloys and laser systems
Lutetium Lu PET imaging detectors
Scandium Sc Aluminum alloys for aerospace
Yttrium Y LEDs, ceramics, superconductors
“
“Critical minerals are vital elements used in numerous defense platforms: warships, stealth bombers, fighter jets, missiles, sensors, and radars.”
Do these minerals have names?
The US and the EU each have their own list, but it concerns 40+ minerals or, rather, elements.
USA: https://www.usgs.gov/news/science-snippet/interior-department-releases-final-2025-list-critical-minerals
The EU calls it the Critical and Strategic Raw materials List: https://rmis.jrc.ec.europa.eu/critical-and-strategic-materials
The periodic table has 118 elements. 40 would mean 34 percent of elements are deemed ‘critical’, including the weird ones that only exist for a few seconds in a particle collider.
True, but only up to #94 are naturally occurring. So redo your math.
40/94 would equal about 40%, but then the headline is ‘critical minerals’. This is why the author needs to somehow identify them. Not sure if that’s possible to do without making the China parts untrue.
“Today the United States is import-reliant when it comes to critical minerals. China accounts for 90 percent of worldwide refining and processing capacity and is the top global refiner for 19 of 20 strategic minerals especially relevant to defense production.”
I think the list of critical minerals might be different in length and contain different members to support arguments in different places.
Australia is currently building a big rare earth refinery in southern Western Australia.
Not sure what they will be supplying, but there is plenty to choose from 🙂
“America’s allies”….
Isn’t that what clever people call an oxymoron?
Thanks to Rubio, we are doing more than just OK in the Western hemisphere—except Canada, which will resolve itself as reality sets in up north. We do a Mexican bilateral, then trigger 6 month automatic dissolution of USMCA, and reality sets in up north real quick. The main last concerning western hemisphere domino, Cuba, is teetering.
Not doing so good with the ‘traditional allies’ in Europe. Multiple maybe unsolvable reasons.
Reasons being
Trumps erratic tariffs?
Threatening to annex Greenland?
Starting an unwinnable war in iran and then beg european allies for help?
Rolling out the red carpet for putin while reducing help for ukraine?
Support for pro-russian right-wing parties undermining democracy in europe?
Let’s see how fast reality sets in in the US.
No allies
No petrodollar
No trade
https://www.cato.org/policy-analysis/world-trade-without-us
Hope it was worth it to keep that one trans women out of sports.
MUR, good luck with all that hyperventilation.
Iran war is all but won. IRGC Houthi last gasp is a Saudi problem.
NOT begging EU for help—besides, they haven’t any to offer. What, the UK Navy or the German Army?
AfD is right wing only in the minds of Euro far left. Old adage about names applies. They just won—big—and are on course to do so again.
No allies? Try most now of western hemisphere plus Japan.
No petrodollar? BRICS tried and already failed. Brent is quoted in dollars.
No trade? Yup, the whole ‘erratic tariff’ point was reshoring US manufacturing to restore ‘fair trade’ rather than present ‘unfair trade’. $trillions of committed investment on its way to US.
Keeping even one trans ‘women’ out of women’s sports is definitely worth it. Ask Riley Gaines. It is actually several, not one. And SCOTUS has agreed.
CATO has been part of the problem. They hate being left out of the solution.
Still believe in the trump trillions? Guess you believe in the 5000$ when he wins the midterms, too?
What war? No war according to the US President. Small potatoes, a little conflict – that sort of thing.
Just as well, too. Wars cost lots of money, and the US hasn’t much to spare. Maybe they can borrow some from Israeli moneylenders? After all, the Israelis apparently told the Americans to attack Iran during peace talks – maybe the Israeli government should assist Americans now paying average prices of $6.05 per gallon for diesel, compared with $3.70 a year ago.
Ah well, if that’s the price of destroying the 6,000 year old civilisation of Iran, wiping them out, bombing them back to the Stone Age and so on, then you are no doubt happy with increase in the cost of living.
It takes all types, I suppose.
Russia and Israel.
LOL… Russia ??? Is that why Trump funds Ukraine..
Israel is a great ally to have against your comrades in the Islamic terrorist regime.
Get help for your TDS, it is making you look very stupid.
Why do you hate Jews?
It is what the far-left tells him/her to do. !
Exactly what I said. Have you tried reading comprehension or are you a bot?
Leo Smith:
You:
Me:
You:
Have you?
At one point you need to learn the difference of things going on inside your head and those outside.
lol
From someone with fewer brain cells than an amoeba
I feel you General Tracy Lor…King – It’s a tragedy that Americas permanent war on the rest of the world has started to stutter.
Imagine you have a chance to annihilate a wedding party, the gathering of a tribe or kill 168 school girls and simply can’t do it because you ran out of rare earths.
A catastrophy.
This makes the further killling of millions of people around the world the conventional way so much harder –
and if only one cultural achievement exists it should be fostered as much as possible;
and by using nukes( predictive programming already on its way) you simply can not scam the billions of dollars you usually do during a war,
as the Nukes have already been produced and not much else is needed.
But there are several problems with your dirge for the defense industry.
1) The Orange Messiah himself has declared that the USA has an unlimited supply of weapons.
So what’s your point?
2) It’s not defense.It’s a department of war according to Orange man , therefore War Industry.
You are in permanent attack mode anyway so you should know this by now.
And the only real defense you have(Patriot, Thaad) works as well as Bidens brain.
You rarely ever find a Video where those missiles intercept a thing – while your bases are being destroyed left and right and even F-5 ‘s from before the stoneage can attack them and fly back unharmed.
3)Great Powerful conflicts are no threat to US supply chains as the US is always the driver of these conflicts
If you don’t threaten your own supply chains – no one will.Stop punching people and they won’t start to punch back at one point.
4) You are NOT in an interwar-period, Baby-Orwell.
You are attacking Russia – your proxy Ukraine does not have the means to locate and attack Russian ships, let alone strike deep into Russia without US assistance and the help of Darpa cutout Palantir.
The war on Iran is a? War.
The fact that you have logistical issues and mask supply problems with negotiation talks, does not change this fact,
The attacks on Yemen can only happen with the help of thousands of US and UK personal – otherwise the Saudi Air Force would be dysfunctional.
The Cuban sea blockade,just as the one on iran is by definition an act of war.
5) National Security – your country is about to lose its control over its military and its secret services as it already did long time ago over the Congress.
The real threat to National Security is a Blackmail and Bribery Network.
Just kidding Tracy(why do warmongeres have girly names,Lindsay G.? )- as Jinsa members you and your co-author are part of that Network and therefore can’t classify this as threat and you need a million tons of new weapons for the Yinon Plan.
They lost control when they made a felon compromised by russia their president.
OMG, do you still believe in the Russian collusion lies FAKED by the Democrats!
All charges against Trump have been Democrat HOAX fabrications and set-ups.. All dismissed.
Then he just hates the US and the west. The result is the same.
And a great result it is. !!
USA is doing FAR better than Germany or UK
US GDP growth 2.32%, some say much higher.
Germany and UK are around 0.8% nearly in recession
USA exports are increasing especially in the food area.
The United States has seen a 2.0% increase in food exports, reaching a record $320.9 billion in March 2026. This growth is driven by a $6.5 billion surge in goods exports, particularly in industrial supplies and materials. Key contributors to this increase include crude oil, other petroleum products, and fuel oil. Additionally, food, feed, and beverage exports increased by $1.1 billion, with soybeans being the most significant contributor. The overall trend indicates a robust performance in the U.S. agricultural export market, reflecting the country’s position as a global food powerhouse.
US Trade hit a record 5.6Trillion in 2025.
It is Germany and UK that hate themselves, you can tell that by the politicians they have elected in the recent past..
But that is changing , as more rational centrists like AfD and Reform, rather than far-left marxists are continuing to gain ground.
Compromised by Russia but attacking Russia by proxy through Ukraine?
So much for Russians supporting Trump
Sxuxs is clear proof that they don’t !
America is sitting on a lithium bonanza, but America has labor laws and environmental laws that poorer developing countries do not have.
Inside the Congo cobalt mines that exploit children. The SKY NEWS 6-minute video
is confirmation of the Pulitzer Prize nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations” that describes the humanity atrocities among folks with yellow, brown, and black skin, and the environmental degradation occurring in developing countries so that the wealthy countries can go green.
I’m sure there are several uses for rare earth materials/critical materials besides military or national security. There are sound reasons for looking abroad for these materials. We might go abroad because our environmental laws make it prohibitive to produce our own or others can do it cheaper or even an aversion to mining and processing in general. It doesn’t matter why we aren’t providing our own in the case of national security we should create a list of the materials we have that could be mined and processed ourselves and be prepared to do it ourselves in a timely manner. It would be well worth the money and effort should a crisis arise.
And these would include . . . ?
Mine, Baby, Mine!!!!!