Critical Minerals
Why Rare Earths Now Shape Defence Power

The strategic landscape of defence has shifted dramatically. Where once our supply chain focus centred on optimising logistics, trimming costs and meeting predictable lead times, today it is inseparable from national security. The raw materials that enable the most advanced weapon systems such as rare earth elements, gallium, germanium, tungsten, indium, and a growing list of speciality metals, have moved from obscure commodities to the very building blocks of modern military supremacy. Critical minerals are now a strategic constraint on readiness.

In the defence world, platforms are on the cutting edge of technology. Platforms have become highly complex supercomputers with advanced sensors and sophisticated electronics demanding materials that provide exceptional magnetic, thermal and electrochemical properties. This reliance on precision tech means that our products are increasingly filled with specific elements that offer capabilities beyond what conventional metals can provide.

For example, advanced radar systems that are used across ground, naval and aerial surveillance rely heavily on gallium and yttrium. Gallium nitride semiconductors provide performance characteristics that legacy silicon cannot match, allowing radars to track faster, see further and better resist enemy jamming. Without gallium, our eyes on the battlefield go blind.

Similarly, consider national security satellites, which require immense amounts of power to run their onboard processing and communication arrays. To yield high-efficiency energy, the solar panels on these satellites depend on germanium and indium. Furthermore, to keep these satellite optics rigidly aligned under extreme thermal shocks, you must source beryllium. If any of these specialised inputs fail to arrive at manufacturing facilities on schedule, space programmes could face significant delays.

The reason critical minerals keep defence executives awake at night is the extreme, lopsided concentration of the global supply chain. This is not just a question of who has the elements in the ground but who has the capability to refine them.

While many countries have raw mineral deposits, China controls the lion’s share of global refining and processing capacity. It possesses the industrial infrastructure to turn raw minerals into weapon-grade metals. For example, China controls roughly 95% of the global output for heavy rare earths, leaving the rest of the world highly dependent.

We have already seen the opening salvos of this economic warfare. Export controls on gallium, germanium and graphite, all crucial for advanced defence semiconductors and battery technologies, sent shockwaves through markets and supply chains. Embargo of these materials poses a risk to defence manufacturing.

If defence planners need proof of how fragile and volatile these supply chains are, they only need to look at the commercial automotive sector. We have already seen the devastating reality of critical mineral shortages halting assembly lines.

When exports on processed rare earths and permanent magnets were tightened by China, major automakers were thrown into a state of panic. Factory floors went quiet. One of the big car makers in the US was forced to pause production of its popular SUV simply because it ran out of specialised magnets needed for electric motors. European auto-supplier plants simultaneously faced forced closures because they could not secure basic refined commodities like nickel and lithium.

Defence executives view the automotive industry as a grim case study. If commercial giants cannot outmanoeuvre these bottlenecks, defence contractors with much smaller, highly specialised volumes are in danger. The automotive shutdowns proved that ‘just-in-time’ supply chains can fail when a handful of minerals are weaponised.

Recognising the strategic risk, governments and industry are forging new alliances. Countries like the UAE are making multi-billion-dollar investments to secure upstream stakes in resource-rich regions.

The February 2026 signing of the UAE-US Framework on Securing Supply in Critical Minerals marks a massive shift. It commits both nations to financing priority projects that close supply chain gaps. For the defence sector, these sovereign partnerships provide alternative avenues to source highly regulated military-grade materials.

Nevertheless, the timeline for bringing a new mine and processing facility online spans 10-15 years — a horizon far too long for near-term scenarios. Therefore, while international collaboration is essential, it must be complemented by increasing capacity in existing operations and expanding recycling efforts.

The biggest threat is often what we cannot see. To counter this asymmetrical vulnerability, we are radically altering how we do business. As downstream users of critical minerals, tracing the upstream origins of every component is difficult. Recognising the strategic importance of these resources, we have established a dedicated organisation and a cross-functional working group tasked with exploring supply chain and traceability solutions for critical minerals. This team also collaborates with our design groups to minimise the reliance on high-risk critical minerals in our products.

To further strengthen our position, we are proactively expanding direct partnerships with critical mineral producers to secure reliable supplies. In parallel, the defence industry is collaborating with the US government to shore up critical mineral security through onshoring production, building advanced processing capabilities, establishing strategic stockpiles and reinforcing global supply chains via public-private partnerships.

We have reached an inflection point where traditional procurement strategies are no longer sufficient to guarantee national sovereignty. The race to secure critical minerals is not a challenge that the defence industry or government can solve in isolation.

Overcoming this strategic vulnerability requires active, deep-seated collaboration between industry and government bodies. Together, we must invest and solidify geopolitical alliances that lock in trusted corridors of supply. In this new era of great power competition, the nation with the most resilient and secure supply chain will have a strategic edge.