CNAS Launches Essay Series on Revitalizing the Defense Industrial Base

Washington, January 22, 2026 — Today, the Center for a New American Security’s (CNAS) Defense Program launched a new essay series on modernizing and revitalizing America’s defense industrial base to prepare the United States for potential future threats in a period of broad geopolitical instability.

The initiative is led by Susanna Blume, CNAS distinguished senior fellow and former director of the Department of Defense’s Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation. The essays will release regularly throughout 2026, written by experts in policy, the defense industry, venture capital, and new entrants into the defense sector.

The series will feature a wide array of perspectives on the current state of the defense industrial base including industrial policy, the influx of private capital into the defense industry, developments in advanced manufacturing, and workforce issues.

In the introductory essay, Blume argues that previous efforts at reform have focused too much on process—tinkering with acquisition processes and reorganizing offices. Rather, Blume writes that these processes are adequate and that the Department of Defense would be better served by focusing on the content of what it is buying and allowing the defense acquisition enterprise to “get down to business.”

CNAS research has found that after decades of consolidation America’s defense industrial base is unprepared for potential conflict. The war in Ukraine demonstrates the fragility of U.S. capacity to adequately supply modern warfare, with potential future conflicts requiring a level of mass unattainable by an obsolete defense acquisition program.

This series continues ongoing CNAS research on the importance of reinvigorating America’s defense industrial base, including the 2025 report, From Production Lines to Front Lines: Revitalizing the U.S. Defense Industrial Base for Future Great Power Conflict.

To read future essays in this series, visit the project page below.