When the White House released its National Security Strategy (NSS) back in October, it didn’t exactly make headlines outside the Beltway. But buried within the 48-page document was a declaration that should make every American manufacturer sit up and take notice: “Cultivating American industrial strength must become the highest priority of national economic policy.”
That’s not a throwaway line. It’s a fundamental shift in how the U.S. government thinks about the role of manufacturing in safeguarding the nation. And according to Brett Conner, Chief Manufacturing Officer at SME, it’s a shift that’s been a long time coming.
“What’s interesting here for the manufacturing communities is that the NSS comes directly out and asserts that cultivating American industrial strength must become the highest priority of national economic policy,” Conner explained on a recent episode of the Advanced Manufacturing Now podcast. “And on top of that, the strategy makes economic security a strategic policy of the United States.”
The NSS comes directly out in a search that cultivating American industrial strength must become the highest priority of national economic policy. And on top of that, the strategy makes economic security a strategic policy of the United States.
The NSS identifies six key areas of economic security, four of which — securing critical supply chains, reindustrialization, reviving the defense industrial base, and energy dominance — are squarely in the wheelhouse of U.S. manufacturers.
That emphasis carries through to the corresponding National Defense Strategy (NDS), released in January 2026. The NDS includes an entire line of effort devoted to “supercharging the U.S. Defense Industrial Base,” with goals ranging from bolstering the Pentagon’s in-house manufacturing capabilities to growing partnerships with non-traditional vendors.
The language is unequivocal. As Conner put it, “The NDS actually declares that this light of effort will require a national industrial mobilization on the levels of the two world wars and the Cold War.”
But as any manufacturer knows, grand strategies are one thing. Execution is another. And while some elements of the NSS and NDS are moving ahead quickly, others are still mired in the gears of organizational change.
“Things are in flux,” Conner acknowledged. “There are different activities that are going on to address this in various ways, but there’s also some structural changes that are occurring that are putting things in flux, whether that’s the structure of how the defense procurement system is organized or some of the specific means of being able to do things like contract and so forth.”
Among the key challenges Conner identified: the need for capital investment to build additional manufacturing capacity, the perennial struggle to develop a skilled workforce, and the importance of translating demand signals into actual purchase orders.
From the manufacturing standpoint is that demand signal is good, demand realized and purchase orders is better. So again, having demand and materializes is absolutely critical to the success of this.
On the workforce front, Conner emphasized the need for a comprehensive approach to manufacturing education and training, one that engages everyone from shop floor workers to engineers to executives. With an estimated 3 million manufacturing jobs to fill by 2030 — and intense competition for talent from other sectors like AI and data centers — the stakes could hardly be higher.
“We know that there’s a huge gap,” Conner said. “We know that by 2030, there’s a need for basically about three million people across the manufacturing sectors.”
To address that gap, the NSS calls for the creation of an industrial base consortium to enhance collaboration between government, industry, academia, and non-profits. While the status of that effort remains unclear, Conner sees it as a critical piece of the puzzle.
“Clearly, they are looking for things that will involve government, industry, and even academic stakeholders and not-for-profits being involved in that,” he said. “Clearly, the interest is to be able to have all the right stakeholders at the table.”
For manufacturers eager to seize the moment, Conner had some straightforward advice: start exploring new opportunities now. Attend events like RAPID + TCT and FABTECH. Investigate what it would take to expand capacity or enter the defense market. And above all, don’t wait for the perfect plan to materialize.
“From an industrial standpoint, this is a good time to start thinking about new opportunity areas, what you need for additional capacity, how to get into this marketplace,” he urged. “If so, now’s the time to be involved.”
In other words? Uncle Sam wants you — to make stuff. And with billions of dollars in funding on the table and a national strategy putting manufacturing front and center, there’s never been a better time to answer the call.
To learn more about the National Security Strategy, visit whitehouse.gov/nss. For details on the National Defense Strategy, go to defense.gov/nds. And to stay up to date on the latest manufacturing tech and trends, check out advancedmanufacturing.org.
