Defense Production Bottlenecks Likely Start With Materials, Not Assembly

Lincoln Composite Materials Inc. (LCM, Huntington Beach, Calif., U.S.), a manufacturer of prepregs and structural film adhesives for aerospace and defense applications, contends that the Pentagon’s current speed-to-scale push has centered on prime contractors and Tier 1 part producers while overlooking the qualified specialty material suppliers that ultimately determine how fast production can expand. In an article on the subject, the company argues that acquisition policy must recognize where defense production capacity actually originates, which is further upstream rather than final assembly.

LCM points to the war in Ukraine as evidence that modern conflict consumes munitions faster than the U.S. and its allies can replace them, an experience it says has accelerated acquisition reform and industrial mobilization efforts. Still, the company notes that current reforms rarely extend to the point of origin for production readiness, which include prepregs, structural film adhesives, bonding primers, specialty metals, rare earth materials, batteries and electronics.

“In many aerospace and defense applications, materials are not interchangeable commodities,” LCM says. Because many of these inputs are governed by engineering drawings, qualification histories and certification requirements rather than treated as interchangeable commodities, adding capacity often requires engineering validation well before new production becomes available.

To close that gap, the company recommends that acquisition teams evaluate upstream material readiness during the materiel solution analysis and analysis of alternatives phases, alongside cost, schedule and technical performance — essentially assessing qualified second sources, lead times, shelf-life constraints and a supplier’s ability to expand capacity. The company also argues that small- and mid-sized specialty material manufacturers cannot responsibly invest in additional capacity based on generalized urgency alone, and instead need predictable demand signals to justify workforce, equipment and inventory investments. 

The full article is available for download here.