Defense Industrial Resilience Consortium

(a) Establishment Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense shall establish a consortium (to be known as the Defense Industrial Resilience Consortium) to address challenges to and limitations of the industrial base to ensure that the Armed Forces are equipped with the capabilities necessary to effectively respond to national security challenges. (b) Membership Membership in the consortium established under subsection (a) shall be open to relevant entities and individuals from the Government, industry, and academia with an interest in advanced manufacturing or production technologies, fostering domestic industrial innovation, or enabling rapid, scalable solutions to sustain and enhance the availability of essential defense components. (c) Purpose (1) In general The consortium established under subsection (a) shall provide a forum for the Government, industry, and academia to collaborate on identifying and addressing challenges to and limitations of the industrial base in meeting the needs of the Department of Defense. (2) Areas of focus In identifying and addressing challenges to and limitations of the industrial base, the consortium established under subsection (a) shall focus on— (A) eliminating impediments to a resilient and robust industrial base, including— (i) policies and procedures that are impeding businesses of all types and sizes from working with the Department of Defense; (ii) areas where the Department could improve implementation of the Federal Acquisition Streamlining Act of 1994 (Public Law 103–355), including limiting the application of requirements specific to the Government in the procurement of commercial products and commercial services, and maximizing the use of commercial standards rather than military specifications and standards; and (iii) impediments to transitioning research, development, testing, and evaluation programs funded by military departments and the Department to relevant acquisition programs of record; (B) identifying and addressing supply chain fragility, including— (i) preventing or mitigating parts obsolescence, and addressing the vulnerabilities from reliance on single sources for any material, product, or service while reducing the dependencies on nonallied nations; (ii) developing long-term industrial base strategies and solutions to ensure the availability of mission-critical parts for systems of the Department throughout the life cycle of such systems; and (iii) bolstering supply chain diversity and developing shared awareness of supply chain challenges, risks, and opportunities between Government and industry; (C) expanding domestic manufacturing and industrial capacity, including— (i) enabling rapid engagement between Government, academia, and industry to develop, test, and scale solutions that can revitalize domestic manufacturing capabilities, reduce reliance on single sources of supply, and strengthen the defense industrial base; (ii) identifying financial incentives and business models to enable and support a civil reserve manufacturing network that could be activated to meet the needs of the Department of Defense; (iii) supporting and informing efforts to enhance government-owned, government-operated arsenals and depots with advanced manufacturing and other production capabilities to enable rapid response across the spectrum of operational environments; (iv) enabling and enhancing public-private partnerships between the organic industrial base, commercial manufacturing, and other industrial entities; and (v) anticipate and close gaps in manufacturing capabilities for defense systems by fostering the adoption of additive manufacturing, automation, AI-driven production, and other emerging capabilities to modernize the industrial base and associated supply chains; (D) accessing and implementing commercial approaches to enabling modern manufacturing capabilities, including— (i) adoption of commercial approaches to information technology, software, the cloud, data management, and artificial intelligence to support and enable modern manufacturing capabilities; and (ii) identifying financial incentives and business models to encourage private-sector investment and expand access to advanced, high-quality advanced manufacturing, that uses software to digitize manufacturing to the greatest extent possible; and (E) development and training of the workforce, including— (i) leveraging industry best practices training and development of critical skills in advanced manufacturing, including skills required to manufacture unique components and products for systems of the Department of Defense and to enable capabilities of the Department; (ii) identifying or developing opportunities for public-private talent exchanges and skills development in areas such as advanced manufacturing, supply chain management, and supply chain risk management; and (iii) identify or develop curriculum and experiential learning to support and enable advanced manufacturing, production technologies, or industrial innovation. (d) Consortium work products and recommendations Relevant work products and recommendations developed through consortium activities shall be considered by the Secretary of Defense in developing policy and allocating resources to ensure that the Armed Forces are equipped with the capabilities necessary to effectively respond to national security challenges. (e) Use of other transaction authorities The consortium established under subsection (a) shall support the use of other transactions authorities under sections 4021 and 4022 of title 10, United States Code, and other appropriate acquisition authorities, to rapidly prototype and field advanced manufacturing solutions and to address the other challenges to and limitations of the industrial base.