We rely on our largest adversary for the materials necessary to wage war?
Please make this make sense.
Morgan Bazilian is the director of the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines, where Lt. Col. Jahara Matisek, an Air Force command pilot, is a senior fellow.
Imagine this: Advanced U.S. fighter jets flying overseas without the most up-to-date onboard radar. This scenario could play out because of a lack of an obscure but critical metal embedded in radars: gallium.
More than 300 new F-35 fighter jets are reportedly being delivered without their next-generation radars. Instead, they are leaving the factory with ballast weights in their nose cones — deadweight placeholders for a device the United States cannot currently source at scale.
In February, the Air Force denied this, but more recently Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Virginia), chairman of a House Armed Services subcommittee, acknowledged that the jets would be delivered with ballast.
The true advantage in modern military electronics stems from gallium nitride, a semiconductor that provides a 50 percent leap in capability for radars such as the F-35’s new AN/APG-85 radar over an older system that used gallium arsenide. Gallium nitride’s ability to handle significantly higher power and dissipate heat more efficiently allows for a new era of combat systems. This means radars that detect threats earlier, track an increased number of targets and operate robustly in jammed or contested environments. Gallium nitride condenses power into smaller, lighter systems. It is what enables advanced sensors in modern jets to spot hostile aircraft from afar, jam enemy radar and communicate securely.
Without a reliable supply of high-purity gallium, the Pentagon cannot build or sustain these technological advantages.
The U.S. produces zero unrefined gallium, whereas China accounts for 99 percent of global production. Beijing is exploiting this leverage by imposing export controls that inject market friction and uncertainty. China doesn’t need a perfect embargo; it only needs to create strategic drag to raise costs, slow production, increase investment risk and force compromises in the U.S. defense industrial base. Over 11,000 components in the Pentagon’s defense systems require gallium. With nearly 85 percent of those supply chains depending on a Chinese supplier, the defense industry is at risk.
WaPo
Please make this make sense.
Morgan Bazilian is the director of the Payne Institute for Public Policy at the Colorado School of Mines, where Lt. Col. Jahara Matisek, an Air Force command pilot, is a senior fellow.
Imagine this: Advanced U.S. fighter jets flying overseas without the most up-to-date onboard radar. This scenario could play out because of a lack of an obscure but critical metal embedded in radars: gallium.
More than 300 new F-35 fighter jets are reportedly being delivered without their next-generation radars. Instead, they are leaving the factory with ballast weights in their nose cones — deadweight placeholders for a device the United States cannot currently source at scale.
In February, the Air Force denied this, but more recently Rep. Rob Wittman (R-Virginia), chairman of a House Armed Services subcommittee, acknowledged that the jets would be delivered with ballast.
The true advantage in modern military electronics stems from gallium nitride, a semiconductor that provides a 50 percent leap in capability for radars such as the F-35’s new AN/APG-85 radar over an older system that used gallium arsenide. Gallium nitride’s ability to handle significantly higher power and dissipate heat more efficiently allows for a new era of combat systems. This means radars that detect threats earlier, track an increased number of targets and operate robustly in jammed or contested environments. Gallium nitride condenses power into smaller, lighter systems. It is what enables advanced sensors in modern jets to spot hostile aircraft from afar, jam enemy radar and communicate securely.
Without a reliable supply of high-purity gallium, the Pentagon cannot build or sustain these technological advantages.
The U.S. produces zero unrefined gallium, whereas China accounts for 99 percent of global production. Beijing is exploiting this leverage by imposing export controls that inject market friction and uncertainty. China doesn’t need a perfect embargo; it only needs to create strategic drag to raise costs, slow production, increase investment risk and force compromises in the U.S. defense industrial base. Over 11,000 components in the Pentagon’s defense systems require gallium. With nearly 85 percent of those supply chains depending on a Chinese supplier, the defense industry is at risk.
WaPo
