Pain or gain? US moves to decouple its defence industry from China’s rare earths

A recent US executive order requires major arms manufacturers to trace their multi-tier supply chains and actively phase out Chinese rare earths, aiming to end years of reliance on cheap minerals from China.
Far from a radical policy shift, industry observers view the directive as a long-overdue enforcement crackdown designed to inflict short-term contractor pain for long-term national security gain.
While contractors face immediate hurdles to requalify suppliers and find non-Chinese…