National Security

The Department of War announced two Defense Production Act (DPA) Title III awards totaling $33.5 million to expand the solid rocket motor (SRM) industrial base. The awardees are Americarb. Inc. (Americarb) in Niagara Falls, New York and General Dynamics Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GD-OTS) in Lincoln, Nebraska. These awards support the agency's objectives to expand the munitions industrial base, bolster supply chain resiliency, and increase domestic production in strategic priority areas.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced it has awarded $1.1 million in grants to three applicant organizations that will provide training and technical assistance to support small manufacturers in the SBA’s Empower to Grow (E2G) Program. These qualified awardees will deliver regional support to small manufacturers in critical industries, in support of the agency’s Made in America Manufacturing Initiative to restore American jobs, industry, and national security.

The Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Science and Technology Policy have outlined in a joint memorandum five Research and Development (R&D) budget priorities for FY2027 to ensure that America maintains its position as the leader in critical and emerging technologies, including AI and quantum information science and technology (S&T). Additional priorities aim to strengthen and uphold America’s leadership in energy, national security, health, biotechnology, and space.

The United States and the U.S. Department of Defense, with the help of its industry and academia partners, strive to remain the leader in chip research and design, prototyping, manufacturing and production at scale. Leading this charge is the Microelectronics Commons, which has over 1,200 member organizations, having more than tripled in size, in just 12 months.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) announced the 2024 Growth Accelerator Fund Competition (GAFC) Stage Two winners. Forty-four accelerator partnerships received between $50,000 and $150,000 each to advance their work supporting small businesses and startups in STEM and research and development across priority areas like national and economic security, domestic manufacturing and production, and sustainability and biotechnology.

Intel Corporation has been awarded up to $3 billion in direct funding under the CHIPS and Science Act for a capability known as the “Secure Enclave.” The funding will support the manufacturing of microelectronics and ensure access to a domestic supply chain of advanced semiconductors for national security. The award will be executed by the Department of Defense (DoD) per an agreement between the Department of Commerce and the DoD.

The U.S. Department of Commerce and SK hynix have signed a non-binding preliminary memorandum of terms to provide up to $450 million in proposed federal incentives under the CHIPS and Science Act to establish a high-bandwidth memory (HBM) advanced packaging fabrication and R&D facility.

The Department of Defense's Manufacturing Innovation Institutes (MII) met with stakeholders to discuss how the manufacturing innovation ecosystem can support the services' modernization efforts at the Organic Industrial Base (OIB) Modernization workshop Oct. 25-26, 2023, in Chicago. Representatives from MIIs attended the workshop to get a better understanding of the current critical needs for modernizing the OIB and the subsequent opportunities to propose technology projects.