Sen. Todd Young: Strengthening Supply Chains is Key to National Security

Sen. Todd Young warned that U.S. national security is at risk unless agencies and Congress act now to strengthen supply chains and reduce reliance on China’s industrial and technological dominance.

“We need to be thinking not just about the defense platforms themselves, not just about acquisition … but supply chains,” Young said during the Axios Future of Defense event on Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

Young said that China’s technological industrial capacity and its rare earth metal production are major threats to the future of American national security.

“If we’ve learned anything in recent years, it’s that we need more resilient supply chains, and we really need to scrutinize in a more vigorous way where we source some key upstream inputs from. China has 85% of the rare earths processing capacity,” Young said.

Young suggested that technology and innovation could help shift rare earth metal production — essential for components like chips and batteries — out of Chinese supply chains and into the American defense industrial base.

“I think we could use our mapping tools that the federal government, the [United States Geological Survey], can map other, non-China, countries to determine where key mineral inputs exist,” said Young. “You could imagine a first right of refusal situation for American companies to extract and then process those minerals. Working with the locals, we need to diagnose through supply chain mapping where our key vulnerabilities are.”

He also called for financial tools to stabilize the market and prevent China from undercutting U.S. producers.

“Otherwise, you’re just going to always run the risk that the Chinese will flood the market with below-market priced minerals and put [American] mining companies out of business,” Young said. “If you deal with those few things that I just mentioned…I think you deal with 90% of our challenges.”

Young also stressed the need to restore the American shipbuilding industry, citing the White House’s Executive Order on Restoring America’s Maritime Dominance. The order mandates a Maritime Action Plan to revitalize next-generation shipbuilding. Young described the order as a foundational step, with a more detailed strategy expected by Nov. 5.

“This will lay out specific actionable items, identifying agencies and stakeholders to implement the administration’s vision,” he said.

Young emphasized that revitalizing the U.S. maritime sector is not just about shipbuilding, but about securing supply chains, innovation and industrial capacity.

“As I like to say to folks back home, make American ships again,” he joked, echoing the broader push to re-shore critical infrastructure.