POLITICS

FRIDAY DECEMBER 20, 2019

Gun suppliesUS military plans to hoard rare earth products

The Pentagon is looking for companies to stock up on neodymium-iron-boron magnets.

(Photo: REUTERS)

They are necessary for the construction of rockets and fighter jets: magnets that are made from rare earths. Now the U.S. Department of Defense wants companies to stock up on it. The Pentagon is already planning millions of dollars for this.

The United States is pushing ahead with its supply of rare earths and products made primarily from Asia. The Department of Defense wants to stock up on magnets that are made from the coveted metals and are needed for the construction of missiles and F-35 fighter jets. This emerges from plans that the Reuters news agency was able to inspect.

Accordingly, the Pentagon is looking for companies that create a six-month supply of neodymium-iron-boron magnets and keep it for at least 30 months. The Department of Defense plans to fund $ 10 million to fund the program.

There are therefore no funds for the promotion of domestic production of such magnets. Critics describe the move as short-sighted because the inventory does not provide independence from the component manufacturers, who are primarily based in Asia. The Japanese company Hitachi Metals holds the patents for the neodymium magnets, which are also produced on a large scale in China. There are no manufacturers in the United States.

China is the world's largest refiner of rare earths. In view of the trade conflict with the United States, the Beijing leadership had threatened to stop exporting the coveted materials. Recently, the U.S. military had made plans to fund rare earth processing factories. But after refining the metals, magnets still have to be made from them so that they can be installed in electronics, precision weapons and combat aircraft. The U.S. Department of Defense has so far been unavailable for comment.

Source: ntv.de, ghö / rts