Eigen RadarGeopolitics
Archive
Analysis

US Army will test supply chains in a manufacturing contest

Acting US Army Secretary Adam Telle announced a manufacturing competition for early next year to expose weak links in military supply chains. Industrial partners will compete under pressure on production and supply. The Army has invested in its own facilities, but Telle has yet to specify the contest’s tasks or operating rules.

Geopolitics··Midday
A suited man addresses an audience from a conference platform beside a US national flag.

Manufacturers will compete under supply pressure

Acting US Army Secretary Adam Telle announced on 12 October that the service would hold a competition between industrial partners early next year. He introduced the project at the annual Washington meeting of the Association of the United States Army, an organization supporting the service. Called Manufacturing Rodeo, it is intended to pressure supply chains and manufacturing processes so that weak links can be identified and strengthened. Telle said testing would continue after those weaknesses were found. The announcement came in Telle’s largest address to soldiers and industry since taking the acting secretary role.[1], [2]

Telle said the Army had invested heavily in its own industrial facilities. The planned contest would bring those facilities into a competition involving outside manufacturers. He disclosed few details about the format: the tasks that companies would carry out and the mechanism governing the competition have not been specified.[1], [2]

Telle seeks domestic production during demand surges

Telle argued that the United States needed to make essential equipment domestically and keep production running when demand surged. He used a basic attack drone to illustrate the problem, saying the country needed the capacity to build millions. An apparently simple drone, he said, relies on a supply chain over which the United States does not have enough control. He called for closer links between Army production and American commercial manufacturing.[1]

He invoked the industrial capabilities developed during World War II and used during the Cold War as background to his demand for renewed manufacturing attention. Alongside modernization, he urged the Army to return to its basic mission of controlling and securing land. He criticised government agencies for becoming distracted by technological sophistication and headline-grabbing equipment.[1]

Acquisition teams will weigh manufacturability early

Telle defended the Army’s simpler acquisition structure, with fewer portfolio acquisition executives in place of thousands of separate areas of authority. He said small teams should make difficult decisions together about speed, manufacturability and supply chain conditions early in the process. He supported continuing changes begun under his predecessor Dan Driscoll, who resigned on 31 August after disagreements with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.[2]

References

  1. News sourceBreaking DefenseUS Army plans manufacturing contest to test its supply chain↩1↩2↩3↩4
  2. News sourceDefense NewsAdam Telle announces manufacturing contest for US Army suppliers↩1↩2↩3
Chip wars and the supply chainRussia-Ukraine warMiddle East balance of powerEnergy transition and climate

More analysis from this desk

View all Brief analyses from the Geopolitics desk →