A new national security report has just been released: The 2015 National Defense Stockpile Requirements Report documents projected shortfalls in various metals, minerals and materials required for the U.S. defense industrial base and, in this day of dual-use technologies, the “essential civilian economy.”
In all, the new report details shortfalls that, in classified crises scenarios, would affect 30 metals and minerals – about 1/3 of the naturally occurring elements in the Periodic Table. Many of the metals and minerals used in U.S. defense applications aren’t exactly household names. There’s bismuth, used in defense thermo-electrics to capture ‘waste heat” and channel it back into weapons systems power sources. Weapons builders need iridium – used in aircraft engines, satellites and rocket propulsion– as an alternative to America’s present reliance on Russian supply.
In the case of tellurium, used in thermal imaging and navigation systems, present tellurium production, already sharply limited, will soon drop to zero, increasing U.S. dependency on China, Russia and Japan. Rhenium and molybdenum are essential to high-performance alloys used in jet turbines and other defense systems – as is more cobalt, used in jet engine super-alloys and samarium-cobalt permanent magnets. As the Pentagon study notes:
“Cobalt and copper output in DRC may increase substantially in the near future, assuming political and economic stability continues in the eastern part of that country.”
But then again: “Chinese firms have been buying control of DRC mines to ensure supplies of raw material for cobalt refining.”
That’s six metals and minerals with little in common, except for one thing: All are by-products of copper mining. Copper – like nickel and zinc – is a kind of gateway metal, providing access to other elements present in concentrations too minor to mine in their own right. Close the door on copper production, and you’re making a difficult situation far worse for national defense planners tasked with securing reliable supplies of critical metals. Given that every crisis is a come-as-you-are event – your options are only as strong as your prior planning – failure today to provide reliable sources of supply will translate into battlefield loses in some unwished-for future.
But can’t U.S. defense system designers work around potential shortfalls, substituting more plentiful metals for those in short supply? They’re working on just that. Take potential shortfalls in tin and antimony – used in everything from old-school bearings and ammunition to high-tech touch screens, and Forward-Looking Infra-Red imagers.
In both cases, Pentagon planners note that, for some defense applications, there is a metal you can use as a substitute: Copper.
There’s only one problem: This year, the U.S. will consume more copper than it produces — 600,000 metric tons more.
Shortfalls for nine metals and minerals; supply dependencies on China and Russia; competition for scarce resources with Japan; concerns about sourcing from the conflict metals mines of DRC Congo: These factors reflect the nature of today’s global economy – and the very real pressures it creates for defense planners.
For the rest of this article, click here: http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/homeland-security/238483-got-copper-new-pentagon-report-spotlights-key-role-of