Oct. 15, 2021

Why Small Businesses Are Essential to U.S. National Security

Small businesses are the engines of the U.S. economy, the heartbeat of communities, and the sources of U.S. global economic strength. This is often heard from the nation's leaders, but what is not often heard is the importance of small businesses to national security.  Read the full article here.

Oct. 13, 2021

DoD Announces $14 Million in Defense Production Act Title III Agreements to Strengthen the Domestic Small Unmanned Aerial Systems Industrial Base

As part of the nation’s effort to ensure a robust small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) industrial base for national and economic security, the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) has made eight awards, totaling approximately $14 million through the Defense Production Act, Title III Program.  Read more here.

Oct. 1, 2021

Department of Defense Celebrates Manufacturing Month

The Department of Defense is honored to celebrate Manufacturing month. As Mr. Jesse Salazar, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Industrial Policy says, “a strong manufacturing base underpins every element of our economy and national security… and every day our manufacturers ensure that our warfighters have every possible advantage they need to defend our nation.” For us to build back better and remain competitive, it is critical to develop and maintain robust small and medium manufacturers and a strong skilled workforce.

Join us, as we support and grow the American companies that are strengthening U.S. manufacturing and securing defense critical supply chains. 

See the video here.

Sept. 29, 2021

DoD Publishes Federal Register Notice for One-Year Response to Executive Order on America’s Supply Chains

As part of the department’s one-year response to Executive Order (EO) 14017, America’s Supply Chains, the Department of Defense published a Federal Register Notice (FRN) soliciting comments from industry on key supply chain challenges and recommendations to strengthen the defense industrial base. The FRN is open until October 13, 2021.

Sept. 23, 2021

DoD and Texas A&M Partnership Yielding Major Investments in Manufacturing Across Texas

The Department of Defense Office of Industrial Policy (IndPol)’s partnership with Texas A&M’s Engineering Experiment Station (TEES) is bringing significant investments to the Texas defense manufacturing sector.  In September 2020, TEES kicked-off a $6.4 million project funded by IndPol’s Industrial Base Analysis and Sustainment (IBAS) Program under its National Imperative for Industrial Skills (NIIS or “Skills Imperative”) initiative to work with regional stakeholders in industry and academia across Texas to understand their specific workforce shortfalls and skills gaps.  TEES’ initial thrust focused on organizing and hosting outreach events and workshops to discuss what skills, tools, and techniques (including manufacturing and other competencies) were needed to succeed in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematic (STEM) fields, and also increase awareness of DoD manufacturing workforce needs.  As an independent State Agency of Texas, TEES is mandated to provide research, education, and technology transfer for the benefit of society.  It is through this mandate that TEES has the organic network and infrastructure to rapidly deploy manufacturing education and address the growing shortage of industrial skills.  To date, TEES’ efforts have resulted in over $25 million of financial commitments to leverage NIIS efforts in the region.