The United States faces a critical national security challenge as China rapidly expands its defense industrial base while American projects remain stalled in lengthy permitting processes. Senator Kevin Cramer raised the alarm about the growing disparity between the two nations’ manufacturing capabilities, warning that bureaucratic obstacles could prove decisive in any future conflict. The debate over permitting reform has traditionally focused on technical issues like transmission lines and pipelines, but the real stakes involve America’s ability to deter or win a major war.
The gap between Chinese and American industrial capacity has widened dramatically over two decades. China now produces steel at a rate roughly 12 times greater than the United States, while its shipbuilding capacity exceeds American capabilities by approximately 230 times. A single major Chinese shipyard can outproduce the entire US commercial shipbuilding industry, highlighting the extent of the industrial imbalance.
Recent conflicts expose American production weaknesses
The war in Ukraine has provided a sobering preview of how industrial capacity matters in sustained conflict. American artillery shell production increased from approximately 14,000 units per month to around 40,000, yet this falls far short of Ukraine’s estimated needs of 150,000 to 200,000 shells monthly. The situation has exposed fragile supply chains and revealed how peacetime atrophy has left the defense industrial base unprepared for high-intensity warfare. Similar constraints have appeared in supporting Israel against Iranian-backed threats, with production struggling to meet demand across multiple fronts simultaneously.
Historical precedents underscore the danger of underestimating industrial power. During World War II, Nazi Germany developed impressive technologies including the Me 262 jet fighter, V-2 ballistic missiles, and advanced tanks. These wonder weapons stunned Allied forces when they appeared on battlefields. However, America’s overwhelming manufacturing capacity proved decisive, producing nearly 300,000 aircraft, 86,000 tanks, and thousands of ships that vastly outproduced the Axis powers combined.
Civil War lessons apply to modern artificial intelligence race
The American Civil War offers another instructive example of industrial supremacy determining conflict outcomes. The North controlled 90 percent of manufacturing capacity and produced 20 times more pig iron and 32 times more firearms than the agrarian South. The North’s embrace of mechanization allowed threshing to be completed 12 times faster than manual labor, providing a decisive advantage. Today’s equivalent is artificial intelligence, where the power that dominates AI development will gain an upper hand in any conflict, just as mechanization provided during the 1860s.
China currently enjoys the advantage America once held. The Chinese defense industrial base and supporting infrastructure can shift to a wartime footing far more easily, surging output of ships, munitions, and materials with minimal bureaucratic or legal constraints. American factories face a vastly different reality, where projects can languish for years in environmental reviews and permitting processes.
Time delays translate directly into higher costs and vulnerability
The element of time represents both power and money in defense production. China builds infrastructure three times faster than the United States, while Chinese defense output costs a fraction of American equivalents. Every year a US defense infrastructure project remains stuck in permitting adds 10 to 20 percent to its final cost. Typical delays exceeding five years can cause projects to cost two or three times more than necessary, wasting hundreds of billions of dollars in defense spending.
- Steel production: China leads by 12-to-1 ratio over United States
- Shipbuilding capacity: China exceeds US by approximately 230 times
- Artillery shell production: US produces 40,000 monthly versus Ukraine’s need for 150,000-200,000
- World War II output: US produced 300,000 aircraft and 86,000 tanks
- Cost impact: Five-year permitting delays can double or triple project costs
Reversing America’s defense industrial decline requires more than administrative tweaks or adding permitting staff. The situation demands a fundamental shift in how government approaches obstacles to rapid expansion of the defense industrial base. Roads, bridges, ports, rail, power generation, delivery systems, and computing infrastructure form the foundation. Factories cannot operate without affordable and reliable power, while mines and processing facilities for critical materials essential to munitions, electronics, and advanced weapons cannot secure funding amid regulatory paralysis.
Bipartisan approach seeks legislative solution
Senator Cramer has worked across party lines with Democrats including Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island, and John Hickenlooper of Colorado to build consensus. The bipartisan effort aims to legislatively approve maintenance, replacement, and new construction of defense industrial supply chains while precluding further environmental review, permitting, and judicial review of such processes. The approach maintains environmental protection requirements, ensuring industries must comply with all specified environmental performance standards.
Companies will remain subject to the full array of legal requirements for monitoring, reporting, inspection, enforcement, citizen suits, judicial review, and civil, criminal, and damages liability for any noncompliance. Bipartisan precedent for this approach exists in non-security related laws covering health and safety, financial transactions, and border construction. Recent targeted federal and state laws have waived permitting for public housing, fracking, pipelines, and chip manufacturing plants.
National security priority demands immediate action
Congress and the administration must treat permitting modernization as a core national security priority rather than a technical administrative matter. Without a complex industrial ecosystem supporting defense production, the nation risks strategic vulnerability that no amount of technological innovation can offset. American ingenuity and spirit represent real assets, but cannot conjure raw materials and weapons systems from thin air when supply chains falter and projects remain trapped in endless reviews.
The ability to deter conflict, or win if deterrence fails, rests fundamentally on American industrial might. Permitting reform represents an essential first step toward rebuilding manufacturing capacity capable of matching or exceeding potential adversaries. The time for incremental measures and insider debates has passed, as the gap between American and Chinese industrial capabilities continues to widen with each passing year.
