House Proposes Manufacturing Network to Boost Wartime Arms Production

Lawmakers urge Pentagon to establish dual-use factories aimed at scaling weapons development

“The Department has an exceptional opportunity to scale advanced manufacturing technologies in a way that bolsters the defense industrial base and the broader American industrial base,” lawmakers wrote in a report accompanying the House Appropriations Committee’s version of the fiscal 2026 defense budget.

House proposes manufacturing network to boost wartime arms production

House lawmakers want the Pentagon to establish a network of high-tech commercial factories that could be tapped during wartime to mass produce weapons.The House Appropriations Committee’s defense panel proposed $131 million in its draft of fiscal 2026 military spending legislation for the Defense Department to create a Commercial Reserve Manufacturing Network. The network would include companies qualified to quickly shift from producing commerci…

House appropriators want dual-use DOD factories to surge weapons production

House appropriators are urging the Pentagon to establish a network of dual-use factories, emphasizing the Defense Department must scale commercially available, advanced manufacturing technologies during peacetime to ensure wartime surge capacity. Such factories would “have the ability, with the same tooling on the same day, to adaptively use metallic additive manufacturing for structural components required in ships, submarines, munitions, groun…