Defense, like the US, will no longer depend on China and Russia for ammunition materials
Reserves of antimony will be sufficient until 2025, Defense News reported. In recent years, the US has relied almost entirely on China – and to a lesser extent on Russia – to procure the mineral, essential for the production of ammunition.
The US military is almost completely dependent on China (and to a lesser extent on Russia) for antimony.
The US government considers antimony a critical mineral, primarily due to its use in military applications.
Defense News reported, citing a report by the United States House Armed Services Committee released Wednesday.
In particular, the Committee fears that recent geopolitical dynamics with Russia and China could accelerate disruptions in the supply chain, particularly for antimony. Therefore, the US should start looking for alternative sources of the semimetal. The war in Ukraine has further strained supply chains.
The Pentagon reportedly has until October 2022 to provide a five-year perspective on current and future supply chain vulnerabilities.
All the details.
BECAUSE ANTIMONY IS STRATEGIC
The report says antimony is needed to produce anything from bullets and explosives to nuclear weapons, plus various other military equipment such as night vision goggles.
The United States is dependent on China and Russia for antimony supplies, with Tajikistan being the third largest supplier of antimony in the world.
As DefenseNews recalls, after Japan cut off the supply of antimony from the United States from China during World War II, the US began sourcing the ore from the ore in an Idaho gold mine. However, that mine ceased production in 1997.
So the US has no domestic antimony mines.
DEPENDENCE ON CHINA (AND RUSSIA)
"There is no home mine for antimony," according to a 2020 report by the US Geological Survey, a government agency. "China is the largest producer of mined and refined antimony and a major import source for the United States."
In 2020, about half of the antimony mined came from China, Russia and Tajikistan, according to the Encyclopaedia Britannica .
"China, in particular, does an excellent job of accumulating these materials," said Seth Moulton, a Democratic member of the House Armed Services Committee. "China clearly has a comprehensive global strategy to conquer the market in these materials and we are behind and catching up."
THE ALARM OF THE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE OF THE ROOM
"Current stocks are inadequate to meet the requirements of great power competition," the lawmakers wrote. "The [national defense stocks] are no longer able to cover the needs of the Department of Defense for the vast majority of materials identified in the event of a supply chain disruption."
WHAT THE US LAW DRAWING PROVIDES FOR
The Defense Department submitted its legislative proposal to Congress last month, asking to authorize $ 253.5 million in the bill for the procurement of additional minerals for stocks.
Moulton and seven Republicans wrote to the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in April asking for an additional $ 264 million in funding for the National Defense Stockpile (NDS), a stockpile of critical materials used in national emergencies. The letter stated that for the past 30 years, Congress had "authorized the clearance sale" of most of the stored materials.
The House Armed Services Commission bill follows years of widespread supply chain disruptions initially caused by the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In addition, the bill would also require the Department of Defense to institute a recycling policy for used batteries. So as to recover "precious metals, rare earth minerals and elements of strategic importance (such as cobalt and lithium) in the supply chain or in the strategic reserves of the United States".
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/difesa-come-gli-usa-non-dipenderanno-piu-da-cina-e-russia-per-i-materiali-per-le-munizioni/ on Mon, 20 Jun 2022 06:51:24 +0000.