Electronics Weekly
The Presidential order, signed in March 2023, invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA), which was designed to stimulate US investment in PCB manufacture and ‘related technologies’. According to the IPC, the directive “identified a critical technology shortfall that, if left unaddressed, would ‘severely impair national defense’ and undermine the American warfighter”.
In 2017, President Trump, who describes himself as an ‘anti-war president’ signed an executive order to asses the US defence industrial base. The following Biden directive reported that the domestic PCB industrial base was “ageing, shrinking, and failing to maintain the state of the art,” and that “some advanced high-density interconnect products [are] simply not producible in the US.”
According to the IPC “Little has changed in the two years . . . The US continues to marginalize investments in the PCB industry that are essential to US military superiority and mission-critical functions carried out by warfighters.”
The association said it “welcomes President Trump’s commitment to strengthen the US electronics industrial base through new policy initiatives and sustained, strategic investment.” It added that the association is committed to working with the administration and policymakers on Capitol Hill to ensure that America’s defence electronics capabilities are secure, resilient, and world-class.
