Larry C. Johnson: A Dependency Decades in the Making: How Washington Let Five Minerals – and China – Take the US Arsenal Hostage

There is a single sentence in a 2025 defense-industry study that ought to end a certain kind of complacency in Washington. Researchers at Govini, a firm that maps the Pentagon’s supply chains, found that more than 80,000 parts across roughly 1,900 weapon systems incorporate just five processed minerals — and that the global supply of all five is dominated by China. The conclusion, in the report’s own words: nearly 78% of all Department of War (DoW) weapon systems are potentially affected. Renaming the department the “Department of War” changes the letterhead, not the arithmetic. Nearly four out of five American weapon systems depend, somewhere in their supply chain, on materials controlled by the country they are most likely to be used against.

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