The Department of Defense (DoD) released on Thursday a report recommending a strategy to achieve a secure, innovative and resilient defense industrial base.
The strategy calls for reshoring supply chains and industrial base to the U.S. and allies starting with microelectronics, developing a modern engineering and manufacturing workforce and research and development base, modernizing the defense acquisition process and identifying ways to integrate public sector resources with industry innovation, according to DOD’s Fiscal Year 2020 Industrial Capabilities Report to Congress.
The document presents assessments of several sectors, including aircraft, electronics, ground systems, shipbuilding, space, workforce, software engineering, radar and electronic warfare, missiles and munitions, nuclear matter warheads and cybersecurity for manufacturing.
According to the report, the lack of uniform security implementation, dependence on self-attestation and inconsistency in defense suppliers’ implementation of adequate security are the key issues that make the manufacturing sector vulnerable to cybersecurity risks.
The report cited the Pentagon’s move to issue an interim rule to implement the Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) framework as a key development in the previous fiscal year.
DOD also provided an overview of emerging and critical technologies in the research and development phase. These include hypersonics, machine learning and artificial intelligence, autonomy, fully networked command, control and communications, quantum, directed energy and 5G.
