Operation USS Wisconsin
A Bridge to Reduce the U.S. Navy’s Critical Minerals Supply Vulnerabilities
Carl T. Delfeld, Economic Security Council
The History and Cost of Complacency
More than a century ago, US Navy lieutenant commander Carleton H. Wright wrote of worrying vulnerabilities in the US defense industrial base. Chief among them was the “deplorable dependence” on imports of upstream inputs, and the outsize costs this could impose in the event of war”.
World War II further highlighted the need for secure supply chains for critical commodities and now, more than a hundred years on, there is an urgent need to strengthen the US defense industrial base given its increasingly intense rivalry with China – a country that ironically dominates the supply chain of rare earths and critical minerals vital to US high-tech defense capabilities.
The US Plan to Rebuild From the Ground Up
The US Department of Defense this week published its much anticipated National Defense Industrial Strategy (NDIS), laying out a vision for modernizing the nation’s military industrial base.
At the heart of the 60-page document (pdf) is setting the right priorities and accurately and comprehensively assessing threats. On that, the NDIS is clear that China and Russia are America’s chief geopolitical rivals posing the most acute and coercive threats.
China’s strategy has been a simple one: targeting and capturing upstream sources to create asymmetric dependencies.
Then dominating the entire supply chain - especially the refining/processing of these minerals.
In short, America and its allies have a huge task ahead to rebuild a robust, resilient, and dynamic defense industrial ecosystem.
This will take time, so we urgently need to build adequate strategic reserve stockpiles of rare earths and critical minerals that China and its partner Russia are already restricting - and could cut off in times of conflict.
The United States needs some insurance, a bridge to reduce supply chain and other China-related risks in the near term.
Therefore, we are launching Operation USS Wisconsin, a private initiative with a specific concrete mission. To procure and stockpile the necessary rare earths and critical minerals to build the USS Wisconsin - the second Columbia-class ballistic missile nuclear submarine scheduled to begin construction this year.
US and Allies Rare Earths/Critical Metals Production
Despite the significant attention given to critical minerals and rare earths in recent years, there are currently only five ex-China rare earth refineries in operation or under construction. Given the amount of time, capital, and expertise each will require, Goldman Sachs Research estimates that, of the roughly twenty rare earth mining projects in process, it is likely that only two or three will become operational by 2030. This shortfall is a major threat to national security.
US Stockpiling History and Challenges
In 1939, Congress established the Strategic and Critical Materials Stockpiling Act of 1939 creating the National Defense Stockpile. This is managed by the Department of Defense’s Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) which is both underfunded and hampered by politics and bureaucracy.
The size of the USG stockpile has fallen tremendously, with its value in 2022 approximately 2.5% of its value in 1952, corrected for inflation.
Furthermore, mineral stocks in the U.S. stockpile are far less than the minerals in China’s strategic reserves. China has an estimated 7,000 metric tons of cobalt in its strategic reserves, while the U.S. National Defense Stockpile contains just over 300 metric tons - down from over 24,000 metric tons in 1990.
Operation USS Wisconsin in Brief
A Stealthy Beast: Columbia-class strategic submarines such as the USS Wisconsin represent the most advanced nuclear submarine technology in the world carrying 20 ICBMs, displacing 20,815 tons at a depth of up top 500 meters, with only 50 decibels of noise, and a service life of 42 years.
Problem: The primary challenge the United States faces in the Indo-Pacific is China’s large arsenal of missiles. Our forces concentrated at large bases in Guam, Japan, and South Korea are particularly vulnerable to Chinese strikes. Therefore, our strategic and budget priority has to be accelerating the development of the US coalition's nuclear submarine fleet. Unfortunately, our weak industrial base and China's domination of key inputs such as critical metals caps production at just 1.2 submarines per year.
Mission: 1) stockpiling the necessary rare earths and critical minerals and, 2) the signing of re-assignable off take agreements with potential US allied or partner producers to support the strategic submarine industrial base and the construction of the USS Wisconsin – America’s second Columbia-class ballistic missile nuclear submarine.
The total price tag for the USS Wisconsin is roughly $15 billion and scheduled to begin construction this year.
Private Funding: The Virginia class submarines each require roughly 9,200 pounds of rare earths as well as substantial amounts of other critical minerals. We estimate that the cost of the rare earths and critical minerals (minor metals) at current prices for the construction of the USS Wisconsin to be roughly $300 MM. We offer sponsors/contributors/investors in our initiative both a nonprofit that is focused on economic security and critical metals, as well as a for profit option if that is preferred.
Strategy: We will acquire the materials for the stockpile in their highest quality and tradable form at the middle of the supply chain - thus avoiding all the upstream risks and high capital costs of mining and refining. This will allow the stockpiled materials to be used at a moment’s notice. We have a skilled, experienced technical team, will assume acquisition and warehousing costs, and can acquire critical minerals in an agile, below the radar, cost effective, incremental manner. Offtake agreements signed with allied or friendly country rare earth and critical mineral producers can lead to a source of materials for the stockpile or be directly reassigned to the USG/DLA on a "right of first refusal" basis.
Rare Earths & Critical Minerals Target List: We have and continue to research and monitor which materials are of the highest priority to be acquired based on the size of the market, lack of substitutability, fragility of supply chains, and low degradation during warehousing. We have insured world-class partners for warehousing and logistics, and multiple trading partners. Priority will be critical materials whose production is dominated by China and its partners. Some examples are Dysprosium, Terbium, Scandium, Gallium, Germanium, Tantalum, Indium and Cobalt.
Cooperation with US Allies, DoD and DLA: We seek to be in close communication and cooperation with US allies such as Japan, Australia, and Canada, as well as the Department of Defense and other USG agencies. We will unilaterally offer “right of first refusal” to the DoD or USS Wisconsin direct military contractors at market prices of rare earths and minerals.
For More Information and to Contribute to the USS Wisconsin Initiative:
Please contact Carl Delfeld, 719.201.3680, [email protected]
Sources: ForceDistanceTimes, Dei Gratia Minerals, USGS, NTI, Library of Congress, Department of Defense
A Bridge to Reduce the U.S. Navy’s Critical Minerals Supply Vulnerabilities
Carl T. Delfeld, Economic Security Council
The History and Cost of Complacency
More than a century ago, US Navy lieutenant commander Carleton H. Wright wrote of worrying vulnerabilities in the US defense industrial base. Chief among them was the “deplorable dependence” on imports of upstream inputs, and the outsize costs this could impose in the event of war”.
World War II further highlighted the need for secure supply chains for critical commodities and now, more than a hundred years on, there is an urgent need to strengthen the US defense industrial base given its increasingly intense rivalry with China – a country that ironically dominates the supply chain of rare earths and critical minerals vital to US high-tech defense capabilities.
The US Plan to Rebuild From the Ground Up
The US Department of Defense this week published its much anticipated National Defense Industrial Strategy (NDIS), laying out a vision for modernizing the nation’s military industrial base.
At the heart of the 60-page document (pdf) is setting the right priorities and accurately and comprehensively assessing threats. On that, the NDIS is clear that China and Russia are America’s chief geopolitical rivals posing the most acute and coercive threats.
China’s strategy has been a simple one: targeting and capturing upstream sources to create asymmetric dependencies.
Then dominating the entire supply chain - especially the refining/processing of these minerals.
In short, America and its allies have a huge task ahead to rebuild a robust, resilient, and dynamic defense industrial ecosystem.
This will take time, so we urgently need to build adequate strategic reserve stockpiles of rare earths and critical minerals that China and its partner Russia are already restricting - and could cut off in times of conflict.
The United States needs some insurance, a bridge to reduce supply chain and other China-related risks in the near term.
Therefore, we are launching Operation USS Wisconsin, a private initiative with a specific concrete mission. To procure and stockpile the necessary rare earths and critical minerals to build the USS Wisconsin - the second Columbia-class ballistic missile nuclear submarine scheduled to begin construction this year.
US and Allies Rare Earths/Critical Metals Production
Despite the significant attention given to critical minerals and rare earths in recent years, there are currently only five ex-China rare earth refineries in operation or under construction. Given the amount of time, capital, and expertise each will require, Goldman Sachs Research estimates that, of the roughly twenty rare earth mining projects in process, it is likely that only two or three will become operational by 2030. This shortfall is a major threat to national security.
US Stockpiling History and Challenges
In 1939, Congress established the Strategic and Critical Materials Stockpiling Act of 1939 creating the National Defense Stockpile. This is managed by the Department of Defense’s Defense Logistics Agency (DLA) which is both underfunded and hampered by politics and bureaucracy.
The size of the USG stockpile has fallen tremendously, with its value in 2022 approximately 2.5% of its value in 1952, corrected for inflation.
Furthermore, mineral stocks in the U.S. stockpile are far less than the minerals in China’s strategic reserves. China has an estimated 7,000 metric tons of cobalt in its strategic reserves, while the U.S. National Defense Stockpile contains just over 300 metric tons - down from over 24,000 metric tons in 1990.
Operation USS Wisconsin in Brief
A Stealthy Beast: Columbia-class strategic submarines such as the USS Wisconsin represent the most advanced nuclear submarine technology in the world carrying 20 ICBMs, displacing 20,815 tons at a depth of up top 500 meters, with only 50 decibels of noise, and a service life of 42 years.
Problem: The primary challenge the United States faces in the Indo-Pacific is China’s large arsenal of missiles. Our forces concentrated at large bases in Guam, Japan, and South Korea are particularly vulnerable to Chinese strikes. Therefore, our strategic and budget priority has to be accelerating the development of the US coalition's nuclear submarine fleet. Unfortunately, our weak industrial base and China's domination of key inputs such as critical metals caps production at just 1.2 submarines per year.
Mission: 1) stockpiling the necessary rare earths and critical minerals and, 2) the signing of re-assignable off take agreements with potential US allied or partner producers to support the strategic submarine industrial base and the construction of the USS Wisconsin – America’s second Columbia-class ballistic missile nuclear submarine.
The total price tag for the USS Wisconsin is roughly $15 billion and scheduled to begin construction this year.
Private Funding: The Virginia class submarines each require roughly 9,200 pounds of rare earths as well as substantial amounts of other critical minerals. We estimate that the cost of the rare earths and critical minerals (minor metals) at current prices for the construction of the USS Wisconsin to be roughly $300 MM. We offer sponsors/contributors/investors in our initiative both a nonprofit that is focused on economic security and critical metals, as well as a for profit option if that is preferred.
Strategy: We will acquire the materials for the stockpile in their highest quality and tradable form at the middle of the supply chain - thus avoiding all the upstream risks and high capital costs of mining and refining. This will allow the stockpiled materials to be used at a moment’s notice. We have a skilled, experienced technical team, will assume acquisition and warehousing costs, and can acquire critical minerals in an agile, below the radar, cost effective, incremental manner. Offtake agreements signed with allied or friendly country rare earth and critical mineral producers can lead to a source of materials for the stockpile or be directly reassigned to the USG/DLA on a "right of first refusal" basis.
Rare Earths & Critical Minerals Target List: We have and continue to research and monitor which materials are of the highest priority to be acquired based on the size of the market, lack of substitutability, fragility of supply chains, and low degradation during warehousing. We have insured world-class partners for warehousing and logistics, and multiple trading partners. Priority will be critical materials whose production is dominated by China and its partners. Some examples are Dysprosium, Terbium, Scandium, Gallium, Germanium, Tantalum, Indium and Cobalt.
Cooperation with US Allies, DoD and DLA: We seek to be in close communication and cooperation with US allies such as Japan, Australia, and Canada, as well as the Department of Defense and other USG agencies. We will unilaterally offer “right of first refusal” to the DoD or USS Wisconsin direct military contractors at market prices of rare earths and minerals.
For More Information and to Contribute to the USS Wisconsin Initiative:
Please contact Carl Delfeld, 719.201.3680, [email protected]
Sources: ForceDistanceTimes, Dei Gratia Minerals, USGS, NTI, Library of Congress, Department of Defense
