Supply Chain Agility and Production Acceleration in the Defense Industrial Base: A Qualitative Study of Practitioner Perspectives

Abstract

Rapidly evolving global threats demand a fundamental reassessment of the defense supply chain and industrial base readiness. Traditional acquisition frameworks, historically optimized for cost efficiency and process compliance, are misaligned with the speed and scale requirements of modern defense needs. This study examines the supply chain factors most critical to enabling production acceleration and source-to-scale responsiveness within the defense industrial base (DIB). Drawing on qualitative data collected from fourteen practitioners across supply chain, engineering, and program management, this study identifies six recurring themes that collectively inhibit production surge capacity: sole-source dependency, qualification cost and time, workforce erosion, communication and data gaps, regulatory and compliance, and industrial base contraction. Co-occurrence analysis reveals that sole-source dependency and industrial base contraction are the most prevalent issues, while qualification requirements and regulatory constraints constitute a second barrier to supplier diversification and capacity growth. The findings indicate that the DIB challenges reflect deeper enterprise-wide friction, including organizational misalignment, communication barriers, and compliance constraints, rather than solely insufficient capacity. Viewed through a supply chain agility lens, the core problem is that the enterprise and its supplier network are not structured to adapt, coordinate, and scale effectively in response to changing demand conditions.