U.S. Army to stress-test defense production and supply chains in ‘Manufacturing Rodeo’
The U.S. Army plans to hold its first Manufacturing Rodeo early next year to find where its production processes and supply chains fail under pressure. Acting Army Secretary Adam Telle announced the competition at the opening ceremony of the AUSA annual meeting.
“The U.S. Army is going to do something we’ve never done before: early next year we will conduct what I’m calling a Manufacturing Rodeo—a race between our industrial base partners that strains our organic industrial base, stresses the supply chain, pressures manufacturing processes, and shows us exactly where it breaks,” Telle said. The exercise will test both the Army’s Organic Industrial Base and the wider U.S. manufacturing network.
Telle said the Army would learn by doing rather than “sitting around postulating at the Pentagon.” It intends to identify weak links, strengthen them and keep testing improvements to make production more resilient and responsive.
The initiative follows the Army’s shift this year from production targets for individual systems toward manufacturing capabilities that can make a wider range of components. The service has established advanced manufacturing hubs at Red River, Anniston and Tobyhanna Army depots and secured public-private partnerships with Hadrian and Siemens.
The Army said those investments have expanded its ability to manufacture subcomponents on demand for existing and future weapon systems. Products include complex electric motors and replacement parts such as tank engine transmission belt housings.
The service is also seeking to reduce bureaucratic barriers to working with U.S. companies and speed up the acquisition of new capabilities. It said integrating autonomous technologies and expanding production would help provide soldiers with equipment when needed and in sufficient quantities.
