DIIG Current Issues No. 32: A Reality Check for the U.S. Semiconductor Industrial Base

The U.S. semiconductor industrial base is critical to the nation’s continued leadership in advanced defense technologies. The importance of this industry adds urgency to declining cost-competitiveness among U.S. manufacturers and diverging alignment between global demand and domestic production capacity. This paper discusses these trends in the semiconductor supply chain, investigates their implications for the broader defense industry, and offers recommendations for preserving the domestic semiconductor industrial base in the long-term.