{"id":4523,"date":"2026-07-15T08:37:43","date_gmt":"2026-07-15T08:37:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=4523"},"modified":"2026-07-15T08:37:43","modified_gmt":"2026-07-15T08:37:43","slug":"trumps-defense-reset-drags-us-military-tech-into-the-21st-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=4523","title":{"rendered":"Trump’s defense reset drags US military tech into the 21st century"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

This week I\u2019m welcoming President Donald Trump to Pennsylvania for an unprecedented gathering.<\/p>\n

Read more MLB fans blast Patti LaBelle\u2019s national anthem performance at All-Star Game in her hometown of Philadelphia: \u2018Completely disrespectful\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

For the first time, the US defense industry will recognize that achieving the president\u2019s goal of sustainable peace through strength demands new players and new ways of doing business. \u00a0<\/p>\n

And at the Defense and Innovation Summit at the US Army War College in Carlisle on Wednesday, Pennsylvania is showing the way.<\/p>\n

America\u2019s adversaries, including China, Iran, Russia, North Korea and radical Islamists, share one objective: weakening the United States.<\/p>\n

They\u2019re working together to that end.<\/p>\n

Iranian-designed Shahed drones, built inside Russia with Chinese components and North Korean labor, are now being used against American interests in Europe and the Middle East.<\/p>\n

The face of battle is changing as artificial intelligence, autonomous systems and precision weapons produce battlefield effects unimaginable a decade ago \u2014 much less 35 years ago, when I deployed to Iraq with the 82nd Airborne in Operation Desert Storm.<\/p>\n

The innovation cycle that once took years now moves in weeks.<\/p>\n

Conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East are teaching us one lesson above all: The next war will be won or lost on the strength of our factories and laboratories as much as on the courage of our warfighters.<\/p>\n

The challenge we face is of our own creation.<\/p>\n

Our defense establishment has grown lethargic, and our definition of national security too narrow.<\/p>\n

In the past decade, small businesses in the defense industrial base have fallen by more than 40% \u2014 and we became dependent on foreign suppliers, many of them adversaries, for the raw materials our weapons require.<\/p>\n

The president and his team have made enormous progress, but meeting this moment requires industry, academia and Congress to step up dramatically.<\/p>\n

Congress recently delivered a $150 billion plus-up \u2014 the first trillion-dollar defense budget in American history.<\/p>\n

Next, we should pass the president\u2019s defense supplemental and his $1.5 trillion budget request.<\/p>\n

But spending more only works if we spend on the right things.<\/p>\n

The defense industrial base extends far beyond a handful of \u201cprimes\u201d \u2014 the large companies that directly contract with the Pentagon.<\/p>\n

It also spans thousands of small and mid-sized manufacturers the primes rely on, both upstream to the mines and mills behind every weapon, and downstream to depots, repair lines, and shipyards \u2014 including Philadelphia\u2019s, where a $5 billion investment is reviving American shipbuilding.<\/p>\n

Today the defense base includes new industries that barely existed a decade ago: drones, robotics, autonomous systems and a space sector supporting America\u2019s mission in orbit, as well as the energy and data centers that power it all.<\/p>\n

Leave any piece out, and we leave a hole in our defense \u2014 a lesson learned during COVID, when America couldn\u2019t make essential goods.<\/p>\n

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Consider: more than 880 Pennsylvania companies are the sole source of parts critical to our weapons systems. Hundreds supply exactly one.<\/p>\n

That means a machine shop in Johnstown is as essential to American security as any boardroom in Arlington, Va. \u2014 and that when we say defense base, we must mean all<\/em> of it.<\/p>\n

Second, we need a new defense culture that takes risks, moves fast, learns from failure and embraces dual-use technology \u2014 the AI, autonomy and advanced manufacturing coming from the commercial world, not just from defense contractors.<\/p>\n

For years the bureaucracy rewarded risk aversion and process over production. That must change.<\/p>\n

Finally, our national security demands the right people \u2014 a far broader mix than the defense industry has traditionally drawn on.<\/p>\n

Winning will take traditional contractors as well as the innovators pushing new technology into the fight, and the builders of energy and AI.<\/p>\n

It will take welders, machinists and electricians, and the schools that train them.<\/p>\n

And it will take buy-in from federal agencies we don\u2019t typically associate with defense, like Commerce and the Export-Import Bank.<\/p>\n

Wednesday\u2019s summit brings the full national security team into one room for the first time: more than 1,300 leaders, including 600 from the C-suite and representatives from more than 500 organizations.<\/p>\n

Pennsylvania, a state with the factories, the innovators, the energy and the workforce this effort needs, is the right place to begin.<\/p>\n

Today, 190,000 Pennsylvanians work in traditional defense.<\/p>\n

\n<\/div>\n

Add our miners, steelworkers and energy builders, and the number supporting national security grows by hundreds of thousands.<\/p>\n

They supply more than 465,000 parts across nearly 2,300 weapons systems, from Scranton\u2019s artillery shells to Pittsburgh\u2019s robotics labs.<\/p>\n

For too long, America lived on the fumes of Ronald Reagan\u2019s military buildup as our factories went quiet and shipyards closed.<\/p>\n

President Trump and his administration have charted a new course.<\/p>\n

Our task is to bring these players together \u2014 and win the peace that only comes through strength.<\/p>\n

David McCormick, a West Point graduate and combat veteran, represents Pennsylvania in the US Senate.<\/em><\/p>\n

Read more McDonald\u2019s adds new Caesar sauce to its menu \u2014 but customers are split over decision<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An unprecedented defense-industry effort will achieve President Trump’s goal of sustainable peace through strength \u2014 bringing on new players and new ways of doing business. \u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4523","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-opinion"],"yoast_head":"\nTrump's defense reset drags US military tech into the 21st century - Metro Transit Review<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/metrotransitreview.com\/?p=4523\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Trump's defense reset drags US military tech into the 21st century - 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