Optimize innovation cooperation with allies and partners.

Key Chapter Title List

1. Preface
2. Acknowledgments
3. Executive Summary
4. Core Recommendations
5. Introduction
6. Current State
7. Major Obstacles and Risks
8. Recommendations (Leadership)
9. Recommendations (International Cooperation Priorities)
10. Recommendations (Regulatory and Compliance Reform)
11. Recommendations (Information Sharing and Communication Technology)
12. Recommendations (AUKUS, NATO and Europe, Indo-Pacific Region)

Document Introduction

Since World War II, the network of U.S. allies and partners has been the cornerstone of its global power, covering at least 76 countries, including NATO members, major non-NATO allies, and strategic partners. These nations are not only force multipliers but also leaders in defense technology innovation, sharing core values and principles. Both the U.S. National Security Strategy and the Defense Strategy emphasize the importance and urgency of strengthening collective security through this network. However, the Department of Defense (DoD) has not yet fully integrated allies and partners into a networked defense industrial base. The modernization of related cooperation concepts, systems, and processes lags behind actual needs.

The current global security landscape is rapidly evolving. China has become a global industrial power in key areas such as shipbuilding, critical minerals, and microelectronics, with its defense industrial output far exceeding the combined total of the United States and its major allies in Europe and Asia. Russia continues to strengthen its defense industrial investments despite sanctions. Meanwhile, the U.S. lead in innovation for some defense-related fields like 5G and hypersonic technology has been eroded, while allies and partners are increasingly demonstrating advantages in areas such as semiconductors, directed energy, and quantum science. This makes cross-alliance innovation cooperation more critical than ever.

Based on extensive research involving the DoD, the U.S. federal government, industry, and foreign counterparts, the report systematically reviews the current state, tools, and effectiveness of U.S. cooperation with allies—including Foreign Military Sales (FMS), Direct Commercial Sales (DCS), and various defense cooperation agreements. It also identifies core obstacles: collaboration difficulties due to cultural differences, lack of access for foreign companies to the U.S. defense industrial base, insufficient return on investment, weak supply chain resilience, rigid export control systems (such as ITAR), imperfect information-sharing mechanisms, and outdated risk assessment concepts.

The report proposes seven core recommendation directions, covering: strengthening leadership (establishing a Deputy Under Secretary position for International Industrial Cooperation), clarifying international cooperation priorities (implementing a "Design for Integration" policy, expanding the trusted national industrial base), reforming regulatory and compliance frameworks (optimizing systems like ITAR and CMMC), upgrading information sharing and communication technology, deepening AUKUS cooperation, activating NATO and European innovation potential, and focusing on Indo-Pacific region coordination. These recommendations aim to promote deep synergy between the U.S. and its allies in joint defense technology R&D, joint production, and joint sustainment, enhance equipment interoperability and resource-sharing efficiency, and build a more resilient global defense industrial system.

The report emphasizes that the greatest current risk is not the leakage of technical information, but the failure of the U.S., its allies, and partners to achieve effective integration and coordination in the event of a conflict, leading to compromised military power. Only through systemic reform, breaking down institutional and cultural barriers, can the innovative potential of the ally network be fully unleashed, ensuring the U.S. and its partners maintain defense technological superiority and strategic dominance in the 21st century.