A new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) warns that the Defense Department (DoD) lacks sufficient visibility into its sprawling supplier base, leaving the U.S. military vulnerable to foreign dependency risks that could undermine national security.
DoD relies on over 200,000 global suppliers for both weapons and noncombat items like batteries and equipment. While foreign dependence is seen as a security risk, the GAO found the government lacks clear data on where goods are made or whether suppliers are domestic or foreign.
While DoD has taken steps to gather supplier data, its efforts are disjointed and cover only a small portion of the overall defense industrial base, according to the report. As a result, DoD has little visibility into most suppliers, especially those involved in the early stages of the manufacturing process, such as raw materials and basic parts, the watchdog report says.
To address these risks, GAO recommends that DoD identify specific resources, priorities, and timelines to better integrate and share supply chain data across the department.
The report also calls on DoD to designate an organization responsible for implementing leading commercial practices, such as concentrating supply chain visibility efforts on high-priority programs.
“Without doing so, DoD will be less able to identify and address foreign dependency risks,” the report reads.
Another recommendation encourages DoD to test whether requiring suppliers to report country-of-origin information through contract clauses is a viable strategy. While some officials believe the data is readily accessible, others caution that it could prove costly or discourage supplier participation. GAO warns that without evaluating this approach, DoD may be missing a key opportunity to strengthen its supply chain defenses.
DoD concurred with all three recommendations.
The GAO report comes amid growing scrutiny of defense contractors’ use of foreign entities to provide services to the department, prompting DoD to launch new efforts to gain better visibility into its supply chain and the parties involved.
Earlier this month, Defense Secretary Hegseth directed the DoD chief information officer to work with senior leaders to protect the department’s IT systems from adversarial supply chain threats, including those linked to China and Russia. Hegseth also launched a two-week review aimed at eliminating the use of China-based engineers in DoD systems contracts, following a ProPublica investigation revealing that Microsoft employed Chinese nationals to assist in patching Pentagon systems.