PRESS RELEASE: New Report Warns U.S. Defense Industrial Base Cannot Sustain Multi-Front Conflicts, Calls for Urgent Partnership with Middle East Allies
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 24, 2025
Contact: Blake Johnson
bjohnson@jinsa.org
Washington, DC – The United States must work with key Middle East partners to grow our collective defense industrial base, says a new report by Gen. Joseph Dunford, Jr., USMC (ret.), 19th Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and former Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, Ambassador Eric Edelman, published by the Jewish Institute for the National Security of America.
Prolonged and intensive conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza raise serious questions about America’s ability to sustain simultaneous high-end combat operations in multiple regions. The report, Partners in Production, highlights untapped potential in the Middle East, where U.S. partners including Israel, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Bahrain are increasing defense spending and capabilities.
By accelerating joint procurement and co-production initiatives—starting with much-needed critical minerals and strategic materials, as well as components for attritable munitions like 155mm artillery shells—the United States can enhance regional security and reinforce the global supply chain that underpins America’s own warfighting capability.
“For decades, the Middle East was not seen as a partner in defense production—our engagement there tended to be more transactional,” said Amb. Edelman. “Today, many regional partners are ambitious about building up their own capabilities and supporting efforts to grow our collective capacity.”
The authors recommend a pragmatic “crawl, walk, run” approach that begins with smaller-scale industrial cooperation and builds momentum toward more ambitious joint projects. Such steps would help ensure that Middle East partners are less reliant on the United States during global crises, while adding capacity to a strained U.S. industrial base.
“Engaging with Middle Eastern partners on defense production is no longer a long-shot idea,” said Jonathan Ruhe, JINSA director of foreign policy. “But our outreach to the region has yet to remotely match our ambitious initiatives with allies in Europe and East Asia.”
Reflecting America’s competing priorities elsewhere around the world and here at home, stronger and more capable Middle East partnerships also can help replace large-scale U.S. troop deployments as the primary means of U.S. assurance in the region, thereby enabling the United States to project power and influence more effectively and sustainably.
Key recommendations:
- Adopt a “Crawl, Walk, Run” strategy: The United States and its regional partners should start with joint production of critical raw materials and components of 155mm artillery shells and general purpose bombs, then expand to finished munitions and air defense components, and ultimately co-develop new systems.
- Streamline U.S. arms sales: The Executive Branch and Congress should reform International Traffic in Arms Regulations and processes for U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to accelerate tech sharing and incentivize U.S. industry investment in the region.
- Diversify strategic supply chains: The United States should partner with Israel and our partners in the Gulf to reduce America’s dangerous reliance on China for rare-earth minerals and other strategic materials.
- Build toward integrated regional defense: Industrial collaboration with our Middle East partners can reinforce U.S. diplomacy and leadership to advance regional integrated air and missile defense, maritime security, and broader economic integration under the Abraham Accords.
By integrating our partners in the Middle East into a coordinated strategy of co-production, joint procurement, the United States can bolster regional security while easing pressure on its overstretched and underequipped defense industrial base.
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