Defense Production Capacity Starts Upstream – Why Defense Acquisition Must Look Beyond Prime Contractors

The Pentagon’s current push for speed-to-scale has appropriately focused on prime contractors and tier 1 part producers. However, production capacity is often established much earlier within the Defense Industrial Base (DIB), among the qualified specialty-material suppliers whose capabilities ultimately determine whether production can expand at the pace national security requires.

America's Defense Industrial Base has entered a new era in which deterrence depends not only on technological superiority but also on defense manufacturing capacity, production readiness, and supply chain resilience. Industrial strength has become a strategic capability.

The war in Ukraine demonstrated that modern day warfare consumes munitions much faster than the US and its allies can replace them. This real world experience has accelerated acquisition reform, industrial mobilization, and placed an emphasis on domestic military manufacturing capacity.

Current reforms are necessary, but they rarely extend to the point where production capacity originates. Defense manufacturing does not begin at final assembly or part production, so where is the blind spot?

In many programs, production readiness begins with prepregs, structural film adhesives, bonding primers, specialty metals, rare earth materials, batteries, electronics, and other critical production inputs supplied by qualified manufacturers.

A drone maker cannot scale airframes if the carbon prepregs or resins, are constrained. In many aerospace and defense applications, materials are not interchangeable commodities. They are governed by engineering drawings, customer approvals, qualification histories, process controls, and certification requirements. Consequently, adding capacity often requires engineering validation long before additional production becomes available.

This rigor exists for good reason. It protects quality, performance, and safety. But it also means the procurement system cannot wait until a shortage appears before asking whether the upstream material suppliers can support a production ramp. If the objective is true production surge capacity, acquisition teams should evaluate upstream material readiness during Materiel Solution Analysis and the Analysis of Alternatives. Alongside cost, schedule, and technical performance, decision-makers should assess qualified second sources, lead times, shelf-life constraints, and suppliers ability to expand capacity.

Government program offices, prime contractors, and major suppliers should routinely ask: Which materials enable this system? Are they single sourced? Are qualified alternatives available? Can suppliers expand? What investments are required? Does industry have sufficient demand visibility to justify capital investment? These questions transform supply chain resilience from an afterthought into a measurable acquisition consideration.

Small and mid-sized specialty-material manufacturers cannot responsibly invest based solely on generalized urgency. Capacity is created through workforce development, equipment purchases, inventory strategy, quality systems, and long-term planning— supported by predictable demand signals rather than reactive purchase orders.

The Defense Production Act Title III authorities and Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) programs already provide mechanisms to strengthen strategically important suppliers before shortages emerge. Earlier engagement with qualified suppliers would allow government and industry to invest before production bottlenecks develop.

None of this competes with the current reforms, it completes them. The defense industrial base is strongest when the entire defense supply chain is visible to primes, tier 1 suppliers, component manufacturers, specialty processors, and the material suppliers whose products quietly decide whether manufacturing can move at the pace the mission demands.

Production capacity is often discussed from the top down. In reality, it is built from the bottom up. If the United States intends to accelerate defense manufacturing, strengthen the Defense Industrial Base, and improve production readiness, acquisition policy must recognize where capacity is actually established. Earlier engagement with qualified specialty-material suppliers will improve supply chain resilience, reduce production risk, and better position the nation to respond when demand surges.

Speed-to-scale is not solely a downstream manufacturing challenge - it is an upstream readiness challenge.

Lincoln Composite Materials supplies specialty composite materials, including prepregs and structural adhesives to aerospace and defense manufacturers. In the interest of full disclosure, materials of the type discussed here; and the recommendations contained herein are intended to strengthen the DIB as a whole, not to advance any single supplier.