Role of the National Defense Stockpile in the Supply of Strategic and Critical Materials; Program research project rept

摘要

The United States has maintained a stockpile of strategic and critical matenals primarily ores and minernls since 1939. Since the end of the Cold War the United States government has determined that most of the materials in the National Defense Stockpile (NDS) were excess to defense industrial and essential civilian needs and has begun selling and otherwise disposing of most of the stockpiled materials. Recent concerns regarding the global availability of materials have caused a re-examination of the need for a stockpile and how the NDS might operate in order to serve the defense industrial and essential civilian needs for materials. This paper reviews the history and current method of operation of the NDS and discusses two areas where changes to current methods may be appropriate: (1) the process to determine what materials that should be included in the stockpile (i.e. how to define strategic and critical matenals) and (2) the manner and conditions upon which material may be released from the NDS for its intended use.