Baroni Center Report No. 9
The latest report of the Baroni Center for Government Contracting at George Mason University's School of Business, “A “Build Allied” Approach to Increase Industrial Base Capacity,” argues:
Written by Jerry McGinn, executive director, and Michael Roche, visiting fellow, this report examines nine case studies on how international industrial collaboration for military acquisition and production can be a mutually beneficial and cost-effective way to increase industrial capacity and resilience, a need starkly highlighted by the war in Ukraine. In this analysis, they assess the enablers—U.S. subsidiaries, reciprocal defense procurement agreements, the National Technology Industrial Base (NTIB), and the Australia, United Kingdom, and United States (AUKUS) partnership—and obstacles—export controls, technology security and foreign disclosure, aspects of the defense acquisition system, and Buy America—to more robust and effective collaboration.
From the authors
The authors make a set of recommendations to achieve this “Build Allied” vision that center on:
- Making international industrial collaboration a central component of the Defense Acquisition System;
- Overcoming technology transfer and other obstacles that have inhibited past collaboration and will be critical for the success of AUKUS and similar future efforts;
- Making the tangible domestic industrial base benefits of international industrial collaboration more widely known across the government contracting community; and
- Scaling efforts like the Defense Exportability Features (DEF) program to increase the effectiveness of international industrial collaboration.