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American Made Advocacy: Rebuilding America’s Military Stockpiles Begins With Microelectronics

Current world events demonstrate the fragility of long-distance supply chains transiting multiple zones of conflict. The U.S. military is currently drawing down supplies of key munitions and other electronic systems at unprecedented rates.1Every one of those systems is powered by printed circuit boards.

The American PCB industry has kept pace with peacetime demand for the defense industry, but will now be called upon to increase production to a wartime footing at rates not seen in decades. The challenge is capacity. The companies America relies on to produce PCBs for defense applications continue to experience internal capacity erosion as HDI/UHDI demand increases. This trend is expected to accelerate as defense procurement of electronics increases. However, over the past three decades, America has been shuttering PCB factories, not building them. The result is very few PCB companies that are ready to expand production.

This problem has been addressed for other elements of the technology stack. The U.S. government made major investments in semiconductors, and rare earth and critical minerals. These investments are an important first step, but pale in comparison to the aggressive industrial policies of governments in Asia, where governments understand the importance of PCB manufacturing and are investing billions in their capacity. China has sought dominance in PCB manufacturing for many years and has invested accordingly. In addition to China, Thailand, Vietnam, Malaysia, South Korea, and Japan are also investing significant amounts in PCB production.2-6 The U.S. has not.

While the U.S. debates policy, our competition deploys capital. This imbalance puts production of American weapons systems and supporting material at risk. It will only be a matter of time before the supply of trusted and secure PCBs becomes a supply chain bottleneck.

For the past five years, PCBAA has sounded the alarm about foreign dependency. The U.S. can no longer ignore this threat to our national and economic security. To scale up, replenish the electronics needed for defense, and be ready for future conflicts, Congress needs to support American manufacturing through legislation like H.R. 3597, the Protecting Circuit Boards and Substrates (PCBs) Act, which calls for incentives to reinvigorate this industry.

Times of conflict remind us that the Arsenal of Democracy is more than a catchphrase. We can’t predict what conflicts the future will bring, but we must make investments to ensure we are ready. Click here for more information.

References

1. “US has burned through ‘years’ of munitions since start of Iran war,” by Abigail Hauslohner, Steff Chavez, Lauren Fedor, and James Politi, Financial Times, March 12, 2026.
2. “Thailand approves $2 billion PCB manufacturing investment by joint venture led by Taiwan’s ZDT,” Reuters, Jan. 18, 2026.
3. “Thailand and Vietnam to Emerge as World-Class PCB Hub,” NEPCON Thailand.
4. “Malaysia Strengthens Position in Global PCB Supply Chain With Semiconductor Investments Surpassing USD 25 Billion by 2035,” Nexdigm Market Research.
5. “South Korea Printed Circuit Board Market Size & Share Analysis—Growth Trends and Forecast (2026-2031),” Mordor Intelligence.
6. “TPCA Analyzes New Competitive Landscape of PCB Manufacturing in China, Japan, and South Korea,” I-Connect007, Dec. 11, 2025.

This column originally appeared in the April 2026 issue of I-Connect007 Magazine.