Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks provides keynote remarks during the 2024 Microelectronics Commons Annual Meeting and National Semiconductor Technology Center Symposium in Washington, Oct. 29, 2024. Photo credit: Air Force Tech. Sgt. Jack Sanders, DOD.

DOD strives to be leader in microchip research, production with help of industry
by David Vergun
Oct. 29, 2024--Microchips enable virtually every military system, from ships, planes, tanks, long-range munitions, radar and communication gear to night vision, satellites, sensors — making them vital to the Defense Department.
Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks spoke today to industrial, government and academic leaders at the 2024 Microelectronics Commons Annual Meeting in Washington.
"Every day, from the Indo-Pacific to the North Atlantic to the Middle East and beyond — from the ocean floor to outer space to cyberspace — as American warfighters stand the watch, they depend on chips to help them defend our country, our allies and partners, and our interests," Hicks said.
"America's vibrant innovation ecosystem made it all possible, through collaboration going back decades across government, academia and industry, encompassing businesses large and small," she said, noting that microchips are also crucial to civilian applications, ranging from Wi-Fi and cell phones to refrigerators and motor vehicles.
The United States and DOD, with the help of its industry and academia partners, strives to remain the leader in chip research and design, prototyping, manufacturing and production at scale, Hicks said.
Leading this charge is the Microelectronics Commons, which has over 1,200 member organizations, having more than tripled in size, in just 12 months, she said.
"As of today, we've awarded nearly $700 million toward this endeavor's goal of bridging the microelectronics gap from lab-to-fab — that infamous valley of death between research and development and production," she said, noting that more investments will be coming soon in the pipeline.
The CHIPS and Science Act was a bipartisan victory for U.S. national security and economic security, the deputy defense secretary said.
"The CHIPS Act made clear to America — and the world — that the U.S. government is united in its commitment to ensuring that our industrial and scientific powerhouses can deliver what we need to secure the future," she said.
A new generation of defense-technology startup companies are disrupting America's defense industrial base, Hicks noted. "That's welcomed, because competition is good for the taxpayer and good for the warfighter."
Besides traditional primes, such as Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and RTX, newer venture-backed companies, like Anduril, Epirus and Tignis have skin in the game, Hicks said.
Academia is also conducting research at universities like Purdue, Notre Dame, Michigan and Illinois Urbana-Champaign, she said.
Also, historically black colleges and universities, like Morgan State University and North Carolina A&T, are advancing areas like electromagnetic warfare, 5G and 6G wireless and commercial leap-ahead technologies, Hicks said.
Hubs in Massachusetts and New York, are helping prepare military veterans for careers in microelectronics, she added.
The Midwest Microelectronics Consortium hub has over 360 members nationwide, and the Defense-Ready Electronics and Microdevices Superhub, which recently began processing its first outside customer orders, are examples of the growing national semiconductor ecosystems, building the workforce pools and talent pipelines that America needs to stay ahead, and bringing new hotbeds of local innovation into the fold, she said.
"Across the country, this network of hubs now represents a committed community — of innovators, transition owners, academic leaders, defense industry stakeholders, government program managers and prototyping and manufacturing facilities, that are together accelerating microelectronics development and production — all to meet DOD's needs, and many with dual-use applications," Hicks said.

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