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Business/Financial

Defense Industry Can Surge Capacity With Advance Planning And Investment, Officials Say

By Cal Biesecker

Thursday, September 22nd, 2022

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Defense Industry Can Surge Capacity With Advance Planning And Investment, Officials Say

Frank St. John, chief operating officer of Lockheed Martin. Photo: Lockheed Martin

Amid concerns that large shipments of U.S. weapon systems and munitions to Ukraine are beginning to deplete Defense Department inventories, defense industry officials this week said that they can surge their capacity to build weapons more quickly with more advance planning and investments in long-lead materials. It typically takes 24 to 30 months to increase capacity but if DoD advances funding for long-lead materials it could get industry to surge capacity in 12 to 18 months, Frank St. John, chief…

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