Rebuilding the Arsenal of Freedom Requires Refined-in-America Nickel

Peace through strength starts in American factories, depots, and shipyards. But those facilities can only build as fast as their supply chains allow.

As Congress considers how to rebuild the Arsenal of Freedom, much of the attention will fall on ships, aircraft, missiles, munitions, and autonomous systems. That focus makes sense. The United States needs more production capacity, shorter acquisition timelines, and an industrial base capable of responding to a more dangerous world.

But final assembly is only one part of the challenge. American manufacturers also need dependable access to the metals and materials behind these systems. That includes Class 1 nickel.

An Arsenal Begins with Materials

Class 1 nickel contains at least 99.8 percent nickel. Manufacturers use this high-purity material to produce nickel-based superalloys, specialty steels, coatings, and other products designed to withstand extreme heat, corrosion, pressure, and mechanical stress.

Those properties matter throughout the defense industrial base. Nickel-based materials support aircraft engines, naval platforms, power-generation equipment, electronics, and other applications where reliability under severe conditions is essential.

The United States Geological Survey identifies aerospace as a leading market for nickel-based superalloys because these materials maintain their strength at high temperatures. Yet America has no domestic commercial capacity to refine nickel into the high-purity forms manufacturers need.

Access to nickel-bearing material does not solve that problem. American industry needs usable nickel produced to the purity, consistency, and specifications its manufacturing processes require.

The Supply Chain Cannot Belong to Adversaries

The FY27 National Defense Authorization Act framework identifies secure supply chains as a central part of rebuilding the Arsenal of Freedom. It calls for reducing reliance on adversaries for critical materials, onshoring production, identifying single points of failure, and expanding domestic industrial capacity.

Class 1 nickel fits squarely within that discussion.

American critical minerals policy has historically concentrated on mining and access to foreign resources. Both matter, but ore and partially processed material cannot meet a defense manufacturer’s production requirements. Someone must refine that material into a finished product.

When refining occurs overseas, the United States gives up control over a crucial part of the supply chain. Shipping disruptions, export restrictions, foreign subsidies, market manipulation, or competing demand can affect the amount of material available to American manufacturers and the price they must pay for it.

A secure supply chain cannot depend on material abroad, and hoping the finished product is available when America needs it.

Speed and Scale Require Capacity Before a Crisis 

The House Armed Services committee’s framework warns that the decline of the defense industrial base has weakened both readiness and deterrence. Its answer is clear: American industry must be able to produce for the warfighter at speed and scale. 

That standard should apply to critical materials as well as weapons systems.

A nickel refinery cannot appear when a crisis begins. It takes time to construct a facility, qualify its products, train its workforce, establish supply agreements, and integrate its production into demanding industrial markets. Unless the United States builds that capacity now, it will not be available when defense production must surge.

Domestic Class 1 nickel production would shorten supply lines and reduce exposure to foreign processing. It would also give the Department of War more credible options to qualify American suppliers, make advance purchases, establish long-term agreements, and stockpile finished material.

These tools would provide the demand certainty private industry needs to invest in new capacity; another priority identified in the committee’s FY27 framework.

Rebuilding the Industrial Base Behind the Industrial Base

During World War II, the Arsenal of Democracy succeeded because the United States could do more than assemble military equipment. The nation possessed the mines, refineries, mills, foundries, machine shops, transportation networks, and skilled workers needed to support production from beginning to end.

Rebuilding the Arsenal of Freedom will require that same depth.

More funding for weapons platforms will not correct every weakness beneath them. If the United States expands demand for aircraft, ships, missiles, and munitions without strengthening the industries that supply their materials and components, existing bottlenecks will grow more severe.

Nickel refining is one of those foundational capabilities. It may not carry the visibility of a new shipyard or missile production line, but it supports the industrial activity occurring inside them.

Westwin Elements is working to restore domestic Class 1 nickel production through carbonyl refining. This technology can convert nickel-bearing feedstocks into high-purity nickel powder and briquettes for superalloys, aerospace, defense, electroplating, and other advanced applications.

Restoring this capability would give American manufacturers a domestic source of high-purity nickel while creating skilled jobs and attracting private investment into a strategically important part of the supply chain.

The U.S. Congress has correctly placed domestic production at the center of the FY27 defense agenda. Its broader legislation would strengthen American sourcing, expand industrial capacity, and improve the government’s ability to identify and address supply-chain risks.

Class 1 nickel should be part of that effort.

America cannot rebuild the Arsenal of Freedom by concentrating only on the weapons visible at the end of the production line. It must also rebuild the industrial capabilities behind them.

For nickel, that means regaining the ability to refine high-purity metal here at home.