WHAT IF AMERICA’S MINERAL-INTENSIVE MILITARY RUNS OUT OF MINERALS?
Macdonald Amoah, Gregory Wischer, Juliet Akamboe and Morgan Bazilian | 11.10.23
What If America’s Mineral-Intensive Military Runs Out of Minerals?
Minerals have defined key periods in technological development for much of warfare’s history. The Stone Age featured mineral-tipped spears and arrows; the Bronze Age included swords and shields of bronze, a metal alloy of copper and tin; and in the Iron Age, iron replaced bronze in many weapons, making them both lighter and cheaper. Since then, minerals have remained formative in changing human history—and warfighting. The cheap, mass production of iron was central to the First Industrial Revolution, while steel, an alloy of iron and carbon, was vital to the Second Industrial Revolution. Both periods contributed to the industrialization of war.
Today, minerals still undergird warfighting technology, including defense platforms and munitions. Virtually every US military system requires mineral components, from steel and titanium to graphite composites and cadmium alloys. Global defense spending shows that military demand is increasing for these platforms, munitions, and thus minerals. Like previous junctions in human history, the current period will be defined by minerals and the warfighting technology that they enable.
US military demand for minerals is expected to grow against a backdrop of rising US-China competition and the prospect of a US-China war in Asia. However, US mineral supply chains presently rely heavily on China, which can restrict supply to the United States, and Asian countries like Japan and South Korea, whose sea lines of communication to the United States would be disrupted in a US-China conflict. Importantly, the Russia-Ukraine war has shown that attrition rates for this war materiel in a conflict often outpace replenishment rates. In short, future US access to adequate supplies of warfighting-enabling minerals is endangered. To reduce this mineral vulnerability, the US government could stockpile more minerals, source these minerals from domestic mines and refineries, and provide grants to existing refineries to process byproducts that are currently not processed.
https://mwi.westpoint.edu/what-if-americas-mineral-intensive-military-runs-out-of-minerals/
