America’s Next National Security Supply Chain Crisis Is Already Starting

InnovationCybersecurityAmerica’s Next National Security Supply Chain Crisis Is Already StartingByEmil Sayegh,Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Tech CEO Covering Cybersecurity, AI, Compliance & National Security.Follow AuthorMay 14, 2026, 07:55am EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.The Defense Industrial Base is rapidly becoming dependent on cybersecurity operational capacity as a critical supply chain function.gettyOn Oct. 14, 1943, the United States launched one of the most dangerous bombing missions of World War II against the German industrial city of Schweinfurt. The target was not a military headquarters, a tank factory or an airfield. It was one of the most mundane components of the German industrial machine: ball bearings.At the time, Allied planners believed those tiny industrial components represented one of the most critical choke points inside the Nazi war machine. Tanks, aircraft, submarines, trucks and artillery systems all depended on them. The logic was brutally simple: constrain the supply chain and you constrain the war effort itself.The Defense Industrial Base may now be facing a modern version of that same problem. The bottleneck this time is not industrial manufacturing capacity. It is cybersecurity operational capacity.Why Now?Over the last two decades, the United States has watched foreign adversaries systematically target the DIB through cyber espionage campaigns, such as Salt Typhoon, designed to steal intellectual property, weapons designs and sensitive national security data. In many ways, the theft has represented one of the largest transfers of military and industrial knowledge in modern history.China, in particular, has been repeatedly linked to campaigns targeting advanced American defense technologies, including systems associated with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program. The F-35 remains the most...