War on the Rocks The Arsenal Beneath the Arsenal
25 snips
Feb 27, 2026 
Michael Cadenazzi, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Base Policy, oversees efforts to rebuild U.S. defense manufacturing. He discusses brittle supply chains for minerals and energetics. He talks about stabilizing demand with multi-year munitions deals. He covers bringing nontraditional firms into defense and coordinating with allies to scale production.
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Leadership Matters More Than New Authorities
- The industrial base problem is broad, bipartisan, and requires leadership more than new authorities.
- Senators agreed resources exist but outcomes worsened; Cadenazzi emphasizes wiping assumptions clean and using leadership to apply existing tools differently.
Use Multi Year Deals To Stabilize Demand
- Stabilize demand with multi-year, high-volume contracts to unlock supplier investment.
- The PAC-3 seven-year framework gives industry predictable buy profiles so primes and tiered suppliers can invest in capacity and workforce.
Big Equity Bets Replaced Small Grants
- The department made large equity and debt investments into mineral and rocket motor firms rather than token grants.
- Cadenazzi cites a $1 billion equity investment into L3 Harris's rocket motor spinoff matched by $3–4 billion private funds as transformational.
