Off the Shelf

Report: The slow destruction of the defense industrial base

Moshe Schwartz, president of Etherton and Associates, joins host Roger Waldron on this week's Off the Shelf to discuss The Slow Destruction of the Defense Ind...

June 22, 2022 7:49 am

1 min read

Best listening experience is on Chrome, Firefox or Safari. Subscribe to Off the Shelf’s audio interviews on Apple Podcasts or PodcastOne.

This week Moshe Schwartz, president of Etherton and Associates, joins host Roger Waldron on this week’s Off the Shelf to discuss The Slow Destruction of the Defense Industrial Base, a report Schwartz co-authored with Michelle Johnson from the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS).

The report was prepared for the NPS and was presented at the Nineteenth Annual Acquisition Research Symposium.

Moshe Schwartz, president, Etherton and Associates

It outlines the significant shrinking of the defense industrial base and the negative ramifications for the Department of Defense’s ability to access to innovation and cutting edge technologies from the private sector. The defense industrial base has shrunk over the last decade in contrast to the overall growth in the U.S. economy over the same period.

Schwartz highlights the key policy, regulatory, workforce and business practices that have driven industry away from working with DoD and the government in general, and the government’s approach to the allocation of intellectual rights as a disincentive for commercial firms doing business with DoD.

Notably, the report coins a new term, the National Security Innovation and Industrial Base (NSIB), emphasizing the critical importance the commercial market plays in driving innovation in defending our nation.