The United States Government Must Provide the BEST Technology for National Defense

ACT NOW

The Senate FY25 Defense Appropriations Act (S.4921) funds the Defense Production Act at $909.377 million. The accompanying committee report allocates $45 million for PCB projects and urges the Secretary of Defense to prioritize such investments going forward.

Congress must ensure the $45 million is adopted in the final FY25 appropriations bill to ensure the U.S. does not fall even further behind its global competitors in this critical technology.

THE SITUATION

The United States military depends on having superior technology on the battlefield. Printed Circuit Boards (PCBs) are required in every piece of military technology. Unfortunately, the lack of onshore advanced PCB manufacturing capability requires costly technological workarounds that increase the cost, size and weight of electronic components translating into, less room for features, decreased reliability, more power consumption, and communications lag. Additionally, it is slower and more complex to manufacture, saddling our military with long lead times.

An electronic system is only as good as its weakest link.

THE PROBLEM

Due to decades of policy neglect of domestic electronics manufacturing, the United States has lost more than 90% of its domestic PCB manufacturers since 2000.

As a result of this industrial base erosion, The United States is unable to manufacture PCBs at scale or sophistication needed to match its global adversaries.

Capability Gap

The workarounds needed to accommodate advanced semiconductors on standard PCBs result in added layers, interposers, and more microvias, which greatly increases cost, time to produceand risk of failure.

Capacity Shortfall

In addition to technical deficiencies, the scale of U.S. production is currently outmatched by orders of magnitude. In the event of a kinetic conflict, the United States would be incapable of matching the production capacity of its adversaries for the core technology that enables everything from USB dongles to munitions fuses, vehicles, aircraft, and communications equipment.

Without enough capacity and capability to build advanced PCBs, defense electronics manufacturers are forced into relying on less-assured offshore sources or risky workarounds that increase cost, size and complexity.

For all these reasons, federal agencies under both Republican and Democratic administrations have warned of the risks to U.S. national security posed by America’s lack of PCB manufacturing, including a 2018 report by the Trump administration and a 2023 Presidential Determination by President Biden.

THE SOLUTION

The U.S. PCB industry needs at least $1.5 billion in capital investment over the next four years to bring manufacturing capabilities and workforces in line with the global state-of-the-practice by the year 2030.

This modest amount — less than 3% of the total CHIPS Act funding — would enable the U.S. Government to begin closing this critical gap in the defense industrial base.

The Defense Production Act has invested roughly $120 million across four substrate and PCB manufacturing projects over the last year. While this is a positive step in the right direction, it is far too little to meet operational needs by the year 2030. Failure to fund PCB investments in FY25 will set readiness back further as the rate of advancement continues to increase across the globe.

No fewer than 8 government reports from both Trump and Biden Administrations have identified serious risk to national and economic security presented by PCB industrial base gap. The Federal Government must spur a resurgence in the industry through direct investment and through both supply and demand side incentives.

ACT NOW

In 2023, the President of the United States authorized the Defense Dept. to use the Defense Production Act to address the PCB manufacturing shortfall.

Congress must ensure the $45 million is adopted in the final FY25 appropriations bill to ensure the U.S. does not fall even further behind its global competitors in this critical technology.