The House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party convened a hearing in Washington, D.C., titled "Rebuilding the Arsenal of Democracy: The Imperative to Strengthen America's Defense Industrial Base and Workforce." The session featured testimonies from Chris Brose, Chief Strategy Officer at Anduril; Dr. William Greenwalt, Non-resident Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; and Halimah Najieb-Locke, Vice President of Policy and Strategy at Entanglement Inc.

Chairman John Moolenaar expressed concerns about the current state of the U.S. defense industrial base. He stated, “Our defense industrial base lacks the capacity to win a war with the [People's Republic of China], is unable to innovate quickly or at scale, and its supply chains are vulnerable to manipulation and economic coercion at the hands of the [People's Republic of China]." He emphasized that bold policy changes and significant resources are necessary to restore deterrence.

Ranking Member Raja Krishnamoorthi highlighted dependency issues by noting, “It turns out China produces almost 5x the number of these castings than the US. Now, DoD says it actually relies on Chinese castings for some of their own weapons systems.”

Chris Brose warned about potential conflicts with major powers: “Great power conflict would be a war of production, attrition and regeneration at scales that are nearly unfathomable to our defense industrial base. We may be ready for Day 1, but we are utterly unprepared for Day 30, let alone Day 300.”

Dr. William Greenwalt reflected on past successes during World War II as a model for future efforts: “This is a whole nation effort that is much bigger than just immediately ramping up a few existing defense production lines.”

Halimah Najieb-Locke discussed industry consolidation issues: "What was true in 2013 is true today. We must rally to close the gaps in our manufacturing capacities."