Between the “peace dividend” and “outsourcing”, our defense industry is reliant on Chinese products.

But a swift response may not be possible, in large part because of how shrunken the U.S. manufacturing base has become since the Cold War. All of a sudden, Washington is reckoning with the fact that so many parts and pieces of munitions, planes, and ships it needs are being manufactured overseas, including in China. Among the deficiencies: components of solid rocket motors, shell casings, machine tools, fuses and precursor elements to propellants and explosives, many of which are made in China and India.

There’s nothing sudden about this.

Congress, administrations and the defense industry focused on expensive big ticket items and new technology at the expense of the basics that would allow us to fight an extended war.

It’s a similar problem to the one that Israel is facing.

Our situation is in some ways worse because one of the principles of our soft power defense diplomacy was acting as arms dealers and offering to secure the capabilities of an entire alliance of free nations around the world only for our own capabilities to be falling short.