US Pushes for New Military Hardware Production Programmes with Indo-Pacific Countries
Dr. Vijay Sakhuja
Operation Prosperity Guardian (OPG), a US led “coalition of the willing” initiative to blunt the Yemeni missiles and drones attacks against Israeli-linked merchant shipping transiting through the Bab al-Mandab Strait has proven successful. Only two ships could be sunk which is a very encouraging report card keeping in mind that this Iran backed group has targeted over hundred merchant vessel; but four sailors lost lives due to Houthi attacks.
The cost of counter measures against the incoming barrages of missiles and swarms of drones is however very high; for instance, a Standard Missile-2 (SM-2) missile costs $2.1 million; a 5-inch air burst artillery shell is valued at $2,500 per shot; and the 20mm rounds cost about $30 per shell. Similarly, anti-missile and counter-drone operations resulted in high use of ordnance leading to rapid depletion of onboard stocks of munitions. The French frigate Alsace had to return home after 71-day deployment due to depleted onboard stocks in the armoury. This weakness erodes the qualitative edge of a military platform at sea and they also runs the risk of being defenseless against enemy attacks such as those by the Houthis.
Perforce, the navies have to necessarily ensure sustainability and resilience of ordnance supply chains by either loading ammunition at sea which is a highly complex operation particularly with missiles which require high levels of stability to adjust for roll-pitch-yaw experienced by any ship that is afloat. Pre-provisioned armaments depots in friendly countries can fill shortfall of stocks if their militaries are using similar weapons.
The United States is now encouraging its alliance partners and friendly countries in the Indo Pacific region to acquire or co-produce military hardware including munitions and support each other through standardization of military equipment as well as resilient supply chain agreement that would also withstand the pressures of domestic politics.
In the above context, the US has conceptualized the Partnership for Indo-Pacific Industrial Resilience (PIPIR) which aims to “enhance defense industrial resilience”, “reduce production barriers” as well as address “supply chain issues”. U.S. undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment William LaPlante has stated that the PIPIR will help strengthen our collective ability to produce and sustain war fighting capability in the Indo-Pacific”.
This 13 member grouping met in Singapore soon after the Shangri-La Security Dialogue in June 2024 and agreed to a broad set of principles to guide the new defense industrial initiative. In fact the PIPIR is quite similar to the Ukraine Defense Contact Group (UDCG) comprising of over 40 countries that have committed to “ capability deliveries to Ukraine” except that it is primarily meant to enhance its war fighting capacity through the support of its alliance members and other partners.
The four “ work streams” or the pillars of the PIPIR are “Sustainment, Production, Supply Chain Resilience, and Policy and Optimization” and involve the US alliance partners in the Indo-Pacific region. Majority of these are bilateral in nature except the AUKUS which is between Australia, UK and the US.
Under the Sustainment pillar, the US has signed agreements for ship repair (India and South Korea) and aircraft maintenance (Australia). The Production pillar involves jointly producing missiles with Japan and the US-Australia coproduction involves Infantry Fighting Vehicles and munitions. Similarly, the Supply Chain Resilience pillar involves US and India and is focused on “ reciprocal priority support for goods and services”. The Policy and Optimization pillar envisages intelligence sharing agreements with Japan, Australia (combined intelligence center), New Zealand US National Technology and Industrial Base (NTIB) and the AUKUS related License-Free Defense Trade.
The US is also looking for new partners for “ co-development, coproduction [or] co-sustainment” of weapons. For example the “ joint hypersonic missile killer program” involves Japan, the “ trilateral submarine pact” is built around UK and Australia, and “ new coproduction and sustainment” with South Korea.
It has been observed that the Sustainment pillar has made “ least amount of progress” and could be the Achilles heel of the US Navy. A Congressional Research Service (CRS) report notes that “about a third of the U.S. attack submarine fleet is currently out of service, either undergoing maintenance or awaiting repairs”, “the Navy is 20 years behind in maintenance work and less than 40% of the Navy’s scheduled ship repairs are completed on time” and “key shipbuilding projects are also running years behind schedule”. The US is lagging behind the Chinese “shipbuilding capacity” which is over 200 times that of the United States”.
There is a visible urgency in the US to build military dominance against the emerging axis involving China-Russia-Iran-North Korea. Washington has also realized that it must build resilient military supply chains through “ co-development, coproduction [or] co-sustainment” of weapons and maintain not only ascendency, but must overcome tyranny of geography.
Dr. Vijay Sakhuja is Professor and Head, Center of Excellence for Geopolitics and International Studies (CEGIS), REVA University, Bengaluru.
