CSIS Study Looks at US Defense Industrial Base’s Ability to Back Protracted Conflict With China

A Center for Strategic and International Studies report indicates the Russia-Ukraine war has uncovered supply challenges in the U.S. weapons industry that may impact the Pentagon’s capability to fight and sustain a protracted war with China, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

CSIS found that the war in Ukraine has depleted U.S. stocks of military weapon systems and related equipment, including howitzer artillery, Javelin system, counter-artillery radars and 155 mm ammunition.

“The bottom line is the defense industrial base, in my judgment, is not prepared for the security environment that now exists,” said Seth Jones, a senior vice president at CSIS and the study’s author.

The Washington, D.C.-based think tank performed a series of wargames and found that the U.S. could run out of precision-guided and long-range munitions, among other weapon systems, in a China-Taiwan Strait conflict in less than a week.

CSIS offered recommendations for the U.S. to build a resilient defense industrial base, such as reassessing total munition and replenishment requirements, creating a sustainable munitions procurement plan to meet existing and future requirements and developing a strategic munitions reserve.

Other proposals cited in the report are expanding acquisition approaches and taking advantage of flexibility in the contracts process and streamlining the Foreign Military Sales program and International Traffic in Arms Regulation for key allies and partners.

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