"The Department of Defense has sounded an alarm about our access to a strategically vital group of metals called the rare earth elements. A report on the problem prepared by the GAO is not pretty. It concludes the Chinese now control the production, processing and manufacture of final products of these vital metals and now own the patents for many of these processes.
The worries of the DoD are well justified; missile guidance systems, smart bombs, night vision gear, unmanned aircraft and much more are dependent on the rare earth elements in some way. Without these metals, our weapons technology would be approximately that of the Korean War. Battery powered tools, hybrid vehicles, the environmentalists' precious windmills and almost everything else electric cannot get by without them."
No comments:
Post a Comment