"No Missiles, No Drones: What Happens When Rare Earths Stop Flowing?"
This is the headline from an article from the energy news site "Oilprice.com" dated 03/05/26 with a byline from Michael Scott. The article notes the timeline for Crumb the 1st threatening China with 100% tariffs and then backing off. As Michael Scott notes about Western media failing to pick up on things about a critical aspect to Crumb the 1st backing off:
"You’re not alone if you missed that important development entirely…because there’s one critical fact that the media consistently fails to report: China holds a level of strategic leverage over the West that goes far beyond trade surpluses and semiconductor chips. China has historically controlled the processed materials that keep U.S. fighter jets in the air…help keep U.S. missiles on target…help enable U.S. drone flights…and keep modern U.S. industry running."
The article is lengthy but a good read about how dependent we are. One of the things that Crumb the 1st and "Last Call" Hegseth are going to be told by the makers of our weapons as they push for faster production/increased quantity is that this is about way more than just steel and gunpowder. These aren't the days of Rosie The Riveter when all we needed were more workers on the line and round the clock production.
Our supply of these critical materials is "x" amount and if we need huge increases to resupply and rearm not just ourselves but others like Israel as well then the rare earth materials have to come from somewhere and we do not hold the cards. Yes we are moving in that direction with a manufacturer/processor that would go from raw material to finished items but as the article notes:
"By the end of 2026, REalloys is set to become the first commercial producer in North America of heavy rare earth metals and alloys"
Although some production is already shipping it is not in full swing. So Crumb The 1st in his idiotic mind thinks he can just "demand" and things will happen but there's more to the problem than his or his fascist cabal are capable of understanding. A wise person planning to go on military attacks all over the place would have thought about this ahead of time and instead of bad mouthing and threatening China they would have been making nice and doing things to get big increases to our supply of rare earth materials/components. So we'll have one single processor while according to the article:
"China controls approximately 90–95% of global rare earth processing. That’s not mining…it’s processing. That distinction is important because rare earths are not actually rare. They exist in mineable quantities across Canada, the United States, Brazil, Greenland, and elsewhere. The problem is that the West gave up the ability to turn those raw materials into usable metals and magnets roughly 40 years ago."
As I said it is a great article and kudos to Michael Scott for doing great research. The article details how our jets, smart munitions, subs etc. all depend on these components and the materials to make them. He notes that Japan maintains a stockpile of what they need to assure needs are met. The US and Europe? No stockpiles. All running on "just in time" production basis. Looks like time just ran low.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/No-Missiles-No-Drones-What-Happens-When-Rare-Earths-Stop-Flowing.html
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