Characterizing risk in the United States defense industrial base using systemic centrality and community measures
Open AccessThis research quantifies fragility within the United States Defense Industrial Base (DIB) and translates it into supplier risk. The proposed model validates the effectiveness of network analysis methodologies for assessing traditional risk areas within the defense industrial base using centrality and community. The output of this analysis is the identification of systemically critical suppliers, where critically is characterized by the supplier being highly coupled within the industrial base, operating in a limited competition space, or owning a disproportionately large market share within a specific commodity. A supplier’s influence or authority validates the effectiveness of network measurement methodologies for assessing defense industrial base risk. Correctly assessing critical suppliers in the defense base allows for a systematic approach to addressing standard failure modes that typically result in material disruptions for critical programs; additionally, these measures provide insight into the propagation of disruption within a community of suppliers, thereby conveying the total impact of disruption within the industrial base. Quantification of fragility within supply chains based on systemic centrality and communities is a novel effort that provides an additional dimension of ‘vulnerability’ into the context of supply base risk. Direct application of this process within the DIB fundamentally approaches assessing and strengthening our supply base resiliency in a completely different manner. The end state is the illumination of the defense industrial base, where points lacking robustness are identified and quantified.
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