Here’s a scenario worth pondering: the U.S military relies on a vital component X to detect bombs and to scan for explosive materials.  Demand for that component keeps growing.  In response, U.S. military officials continue to purchase greater quantities of component X from overseas.  But with demand continuing to climb, what might the military do to secure more reliable supplies of component X?

  If we’re talking about bomb-sniffing dogs used by both the U.S. military and the Department of Homeland Security, the decision has been to simply to buy more and more dogs from European breeders.  Unfortunately, and as one Congressman noted, not all of these dogs are top-notch: “European sources are getting first choice; we’re getting second choice.”

There might be some good news, though.  New language inserted into the House-passed FY09 defense authorization bill would require the military to move toward buying only American-bred dogs to sniff out bombs, to patrol bases, and to perform other tasks in the United States and overseas.

Currently, the military sources its dogs from both domestic breeders and European vendors.  But with only 19 domestic breeders providing a handful of dogs to meet the Defense Department’s strict requirements, U.S. military officials often travel to Europe to procure more top-breed dogs.  The problem, though, is that the U.S. isn’t necessarily receiving the pick of the European litters.

With the military’s use of contractor-dog teams in Iraq and Afghanistan increasing the need for qualified canines, it makes sense to boost domestic breeding of top-line dogs.  The U.S. is currently paying an average of $3,000-4,000 for each European dog, and could simply expand the breeding of top bloodline U.S. dogs for the same price. 

The new canine language in the FY09 bill would rectify this by increasing the breeding of reliable domestic sources, leaving the U.S. military less vulnerable to a potential dog shortage.

A question, then: if the U.S. Congress can think strategically to increase domestic production of strategically important military dogs, why can’t it apply the same thinking to even more high-value items?  Americans might be surprised and troubled to learn that such key components as naval sonobuoys and Hellfire missile propellant are now being sourced from China, a country that the U.S. Department of Defense has already designated as a potential threat.

Shortsightedness for military procurement has become such a problem, though, that the Pentagon has created a ‘Diminishing Manufacturing Sources and Materials Shortages’ system to identify domestic material and manufacturing scarcities. 

If the U.S. is to retain a reliable military, it must also maintain the ability to manufacture both hardware and replacement parts at home.  So whether it’s dogs, bullets, missile parts, or computerized naval systems, it would seem prudent to have someone at home do the breeding.

##

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 5th, 2008 at 6:11 pm and is filed under National Security. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.