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By Christopher E. “Chris” Kubasik 
L3Harris Chair and CEO

The Department of Defense (DoD) began the year with the release of the inaugural (NDIS), a comprehensive overview of the DoD’s strategic vision “to coordinate and prioritize actions to build a modernized defense industrial ecosystem.” While the document’s release is an important step forward in ensuring that the Joint Force retains technological overmatch, the NDIS also lays bare the reality that for the first time since World War II, the U.S. must reassert control over its own defense supply chain destiny.   

Wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, alongside rising tensions in the Indo-Pacific, have forced a spotlight on the hard truth that the U.S. Defense Industrial Base (DIB) is at a crossroads on how to execute on DoD’s modernization priorities and maintain the arsenal of democracy.  

There is little doubt that American ingenuity and engineering prowess are capable of creating the world’s most sophisticated weapons systems – but sophistication means little if we cannot innovate at the speed of the asymmetric threats. Given the increasingly hostile global security landscape we find ourselves in and adversaries who show no signs of slowing their technological advances, the need for the NDIS and an innovative, robust and resilient defense industrial ecosystem is crystal clear.  

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