As demand for arms booms, lack of modernization stymies weapons production

Many of these smaller [lower tier] suppliers are “tier five, six, and seven,” in the defense supply chain, said Jerry McGinn, a former senior career official in the Defense Department’s Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy. “We're talking wiring, harnesses, fasteners, those kinds of things.”

“When these folks go out of business, or they retire, the stuff they manufactured is not being produced anymore,” McGinn said. 

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