with critical minerals. And when we think about the OIB, it’s not just depot maintenance, although that is a very important component, but it’s also the arsenals where we manufacture weapon systems, our munitions production capability. The second initiative involves our manufacturing capa- bility. Across the DoD industrial organizations, we have the capacity to manufacture needed items and specifcally to manufacture parts. In order to tap into underutilized manufacturing capa- bility across the department, we’re developing what we call the OIB marketplace to enable an efective connec- tion between anyone in the DoD who needs something manufactured with anyone in the DoD who could do that manufacturing. Right now, our ability to tap into that manufacturing capability is often limited by who you know and who you can pick up the phone and call. We want to really open the aperture on that so that we can more efectively tap into the manufacturing capability. That will enable us to ofset many of the challenges with diminishing sources of manu- facturing and materiel, with parts that are not economi- cally viable for commercial production, with obsolescence, and all of these areas where we could leverage the organic manufacturing capability to drive readiness. In this way, someone in the Air Force could theoretically leverage a shipyard to make a B52 part, for example. We’re in the fnal phase of user testing and expect to roll that out in the very near future. The third initiative we are actively exploring has really been enabled by the secretary and the president’s priori- ties in leveraging commercial enterprises. That involves thinking about public-private partnerships in a diferent way, perhaps more aggressively and tightly by leveraging or connecting public or private equity with the depart- ment’s organic capability, commercial enterprise, and the OIB in a partnership. This could provide a way to leverage and repurpose organic industrial facilities that we are no longer efectively utilizing. I think there’s some signifcant opportunity there to accelerate the range of things that concern us for ratings including production and parts man- ufacturing. So those are just three initiatives that we’re working on. The Services and the DLA are all doing great work, and we’re just trying to integrate things that can help move the needle across the department. Q Defense technology is undergoing rapid change, es- pecially through digitalization and robotics. To what extent do you think this is changing the calculus toward producing lower-cost items that can be quickly upgraded or replaced as needed? A. In terms of readiness, it does change how we think about the type of maintenance that might be required on certain weapons systems that we would procure in the future. If we are taking the approach that low-cost, high-volume production items, drones if you will, are disposable and don’t require maintenance and repair, that’s something to
In order to tap into underutilized
manufacturing capability across the department, we’re developing what we call the OIB marketplace to enable an effective connection between anyone in the DoD who needs something manufactured with anyone in the DoD who could do that manufacturing.
factor in down the road. Maybe those become predomi- nant kinetic weapon systems as opposed to some of the platforms that we use now. From a logistics perspective, we need to tap into that type of capability more aggressively. The enterprise has really been focused on low-cost mass-produced autono- mous systems for kinetic efect, I think we need to think about those things for logistics delivery platforms as well, and certainly there are very good initiatives in the Army and the Marine Corps exploiting this. But these are things at the departmental level, at the enterprise level, we need to start thinking about how we can leverage cutting-edge technology to the advantage of logistics and perhaps get beyond the ability to deliver kinetic efect. And I think if we do that, we can really harness technology in a way that can help us ofset what we might see as some of the challenges associated with distribution, maintenance, and repair in theaters like IDOPACOM [Pacifc and Indian Oceans re- gions] where the delivery distances are so great. Q What do you think are the possibilities of expansion of private domestic U.S. production capacities for mili- tary supplies to meet possible challenges from abroad? Do you see an elastic expandability of the private industrial base? A. I think there are a couple of aspects to that. I know that, on the one hand, there is rightful concern about the con- traction of the industrial capacity in the United States, and certainly, inarguably, the contraction of the number of sup- pliers or commercial providers to the DoD.
8 | DEFENSE ACQUISITION | September-October 2025
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