Semiconductors have always been in widespread use across the nation, but with the Pentagons increasing use of more advanced systems and tensions in East Asia, shoring up the supply chain is more important than ever.
Thats what was on the minds of domestic manufacturing advocates and industrial policy watchers as Congress passed a law to protect the vulnerable supply chains.
In August, President Joe Biden inked the $280 billion bill ” the Creating Helpful Incentives to Produce Semiconductors, or CHIPS, and Science Act ” to the excitement of its many advocates and microelectronics industry executives, said Doug Crowe, the director of an other transactional authority program at the National Security Technology Accelerator.
The act does not immediately protect the supply chain from Chinese competition and influence, but it marks a change in attitudes and a step toward the future, Crowe and other experts said in interviews.