Rahm Emanuel
At an infamous 1993 dinner in Washington, Defense Secretary Les Aspin warned American defense-industry leaders that they should brace for a reduction in the Pentagon’s budget. The Cold War had ended and the country needed to consolidate.
That was true—to a point. Unfortunately, the U.S. drastically overshot the mark. Since the 1990s, the number of prime defense contractors has shrunk from 51 to five. The sector lost an estimated 17,000 companies between 2018 and 2023, and the number of public naval shipyards plummeted from a World War II-era peak of 11 to four today.
Some degree of streamlining made sense after the Cold War. Today’s security situation, however, requires a fundamental rethinking. Within the first two months of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. had supplied Kyiv with about a third of America’s Stinger anti-air and Javelin antiarmor missile stockpiles. Washington has since strained to keep up with demand for these and other weapons and to fulfill its pledges to allies.
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