Energy Infrastructure and the Defense Industrial Base
Updated: Aug 23
Center for Strategic and International Studies | National Security Research Brief
Joseph Majkut, Alexander Palmer, and Raj Sawhney | March 17, 2026
—Reformatted for Farmed—
The Issue
Can the energy infrastructure serving the U.S. defense industrial base sustain production under mobilization?
[The brief available below] focuses on three scenarios for mobilization consistent with baseline production, defense buildup, and peer war. Using embodied energy methods, the research team estimates that war production rates would require 17.4 petajoules (PJ) of energy annually, a relatively small amount nationally, but one that would need to be concentrated at facilities in already stressed grid regions.
Facilities for the defense-critical production of steel, aluminum, titanium, and semiconductors are clustered in regions already facing eroding reserve margins and surging data center demands.
Natural gas deliverability constraints compound these risks, as key facilities depend on gas both as direct fuel and as the primary source of regional electricity generation. This paper recommends extending defense-critical electric infrastructure designations to industrial nodes, creating dedicated permitting and finance pathways to facilitate energy production, and integrating energy resilience into supply chain risk assessments.
Download the entire, original briefing paper below.
