Opinion | Invoke U.S. Defense Production Act for battery tech revolution

Unfortunately for the United States and the West, this entire revolution depends on a single failure point: almost every independent system that is deployed today is operated by batteries based on the Chinese supply chains. If America cannot source and The manufacture of batteries that operate drones and autonomy systems, and their defensive superiority is at risk.

The Ukrainian conflict provides a demonstration in the actual time of the new reality in the war. Ukrainian forces used small, inexpensive drones to destroy Russian strategic bombers worth tens of millions of dollars. Ukraine has become an innovation laboratory for the development and production of Western aircraft, but almost all of them are working with the batteries that depend on China.

The Pentagon got the memo. The army is subject to the largest restructuring since the Cold War, which thrives both of its actual sections with several thousand-bachephachlows, ultimately-from drones. The Ministry of Defense’s identical copy initiative aims to provide thousands of independent systems quickly before the end of this year. Programs such as the Defense Innovation Unit project track the next generation of drone technology.

This change brings a blatant truth. Over another 100 years, access to oil tanks to energy, aircraft, ships, and supply chain lines have been determined. But in a world of uninhabited independent systems, access to batteries and artificial intelligence systems is a new competitive advantage. Unfortunately, with batteries, we are behind.

Battery monopoly in China

Old Lithium Ion battery technology that dominates the market for drones and other defense applications require cobalt, nickel, manganese and graphite-materials that flow through Beijing’s supply chains, from mining to metal processing to battery manufacturing. In the case of graphite, a substance in almost every battery today, China controls more than 95 % of the global battery market. This is not the result of competition in the free market. This is the result of decades of Chinese industrial policy and subsidies to build its global leadership in batteries.

Despite recent investments in the United States and the European Union to build batteries manufacturing, the unification of the market in China is still growing every year. Why? Because China has a monopoly on the supply and technology chain that feeds these battery plants. Beijing adheres to the exports of critical battery materials, and the global markets that were flooded by water to undermine competitors, and in some cases it stopped providing batteries to certain American drones. In other words, China exerts its monopolistic control in the market.

congress realized this weakness when the National Defense Licensing law of 2024, which prohibits the Ministry of Defense, approved the purchase of batteries containing Chinese exporting materials starting in October 2027. What is the possible weakness is now the current reality in 2025, and the United States was not sufficiently combined or strategically sufficient to generate the local battery supply chain.

The solution is the next generation batteries of the next generation

Let’s face it. Nearly 30 years of industrial policy, China won the battle of lithium ion dominance. The repetition of its strategy only plays in the hands of the leader of the monopoly at the expense of lost resources. The best path is to jump in the lithium -ion technology by accelerating the battery technology stage of the next generation that depends on local supply chains.

Lithium sulfur batteries are one of the most promising specialists-and is immediately available. Unlike traditional lithium -ion technology, lithium batteries do not require minerals and the processes that are controlled by Chinese, such as nickel, cobalt, manganese and graphite. Instead, the lithium-Sperpur is designed with materials that are easily available in the United States as secondary oil and gas manufacturing products on a large scale.

In addition, the lithium-sulfur is a jump forward in energy density, which means the weight battery is 30-50 % lighter. In drone applications, each gram matters. The Li-Sulfur-made lithium-sulfur battery, which the United States manufactures, passes further and carries more beneficial loads associated with American innovation, is how America can lead the drone revolution.

Many American companies were racing to market lithium-sulfur technology. Liten is one of them. We started producing commercial aircraft batteries in the second quarter, where they were obtained and manufactured in the United States, with the intensity of energy superior to the lithium ion batteries. Customer pipeline interested in daily space, defense, supply chain and industrial sectors-evidence of pent-up demand to demand alternatives to Li-Ion technology today.

It’s time to invest throughH Defense Production Law

It is time to move urgently. The United States has a superior alternative to Lithium Ion technology available today, using a largely developed local supply chain, and manufacturing infrastructure in place to quickly expand its scope with the right strategic investments. The Defense Production Law gives the federal government to accelerate the local production of critical technologies for national security purposes. President Trump previously used the Ministry of Defense to increase the local production of medical supplies during the epidemic. The current battery crisis requires similar urgency.

Starting with drones, it is time for America to make a statement worldwide and implement a US -led battery revolution.

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