🇺🇸🇨🇳 America's submarines, stealth bombers and missile interceptors all run on minerals China controls, and a new report counts 28,000 parts at risk if Beijing turns off the tap The study from Eric Schmidt's Special Competitive Studies Project ran nine million parts through supply-chain AI and found more than 28,000 unique components across 1,400 weapons that depend on four minerals China dominates: gallium at up to 99% of world supply, tungsten at 80%, germanium at 68%, antimony at half. Each Virginia-class submarine needs 9,200 pounds of them and 300-plus parts, the B-2 needs 782 parts, an F-35 carries 900 pounds. Ten of the twelve Virginias under construction are already three to four years late, partly because China also makes half the world's large metal castings, and a Pentagon war game found the US couldn't replace ships, planes and missiles lost in combat because of casting shortfalls. The timing is the problem. China's pause on export controls expires this month, Japan has already lost more than 80% of some rare earth supplies, and America's answer so far is one mine outside Las Vegas, one new mine in Wyoming that won't produce until 2029, and a 29-year average to open another. The Army wants to build thousands of interceptors a year to replace what Iran burned through; the gallium in every one of their radars comes from the country Washington is trying to out-build. Beijing hasn't pulled the trigger yet, which means the leverage is still sitting there untouched... exactly where China wants it. Source: Strategic Analysis Australia, The War Zone, Reuters / Writer: Daniel