A defense industrial base (DIB) is the network of organizations, facilities, and resources that provides a government with materials, products, and services for defense purposes, especially the supply of its armed military forces. [1] It may include both public and private actors, including some entities that may not exclusively engage in defense-related production, and is often defined in geographical or national terms. [1] It may also be divided according to the kinds of weapons and equipment produced. [1] As a concept, the DIB is closely related to the notion of the military–industrial complex, and is often discussed as a foundational element of national power.
The U.S. defense industrial base has attracted particular attention from policymakers, analysts, academics, and other commentators. Although the country has in some sense possessed a DIB since the Revolutionary War, the modern industrial base–in the form of a large, permanent network of defense-oriented industrial facilities, primarily owned and operated by private firms and maintained during peacetime--dates from the early Cold War. [1] After significant expansion between the late 1940s and the late 1980s, the U.S. DIB experienced a period of contraction and consolidation associated with the reduction of defense spending following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. [2] [1] Since the early 2010s–and especially following Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine–the U.S. government has increased the resourcing of the DIB, and production output for the sector as a whole appears to have risen correspondingly. [1] [3] Whether the DIB is appropriately sized, structured, and tasked is subject of considerable debate within the United States. [4] [5] [6]
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