Trump called a meeting of all U.S. arms manufacturers, ordering them to rapidly increase the production of precision-guided weapons, showing full confidence in China's supply of rare earths!
It seems that attacking Iran has indeed exhausted the weapons. Recently, Trump summoned the leaders of major American defense companies such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Technologies, Boeing, and Northrop Grumman to the White House. The theme of the meeting was only one: increasing production. He demanded that the output of precision-guided weapons be quadrupled in a short period.
However, during the entire meeting, there was one key issue that everyone deliberately ignored - where would the raw materials for these high-tech items come from, especially rare earths? This collective "selective blindness" seemed to reveal an inexplicable confidence: as if, once the White House issued an order, China would continuously deliver strategic materials to them.
Whether it is the "Patriot-3" air defense missile or the "Tomahawk" cruise missile on the sea battlefield, their guidance heads, servos, and control systems rely on high-performance rare earth magnets. A single such missile may require 2.5 to 3 kilograms of rare earth materials. Samarium-cobalt magnets need to be heat-resistant, neodymium-iron-boron magnets need to provide strong magnetic fields, and elements like dysprosium and terbium must be added to enhance performance. Yttrium oxide is also an indispensable additive. Without any of these, the missile might just be a big firework, unable to hit its target accurately.
These critical "industrial vitamins," the U.S. itself has very few. Looking at reserves, the U.S. holds less than 1% of the world's rare earth reserves, which is a hard limit. Looking at production capacity, this is the real "choke point." Currently, 99% of the global refining capacity for medium and heavy rare earths is controlled by China. It's not that the U.S. doesn't have minerals underground, but they lack the technical chain to turn ore into high-purity metals. China's patented cascade extraction technology acts like a high wall, directly blocking the U.S. out. To produce high-purity rare earths with a purity of 5N (99.999%) for military-grade magnets, the U.S. industrial system cannot do it right now.
Over 85% of the global military-grade rare earth magnet production capacity is in China. In this niche area, there are no alternatives or backup options globally. In 2025, in response to the U.S.'s long-term arms sales to Taiwan, China has already imposed targeted sanctions on U.S. defense companies such as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon. China has implemented strict export licensing systems for medium and heavy rare earths and military-grade magnets. Any applications involving U.S. defense companies will generally not be approved.
Dao Ge is deeply confused about where this confidence of the U.S. comes from. Is it because they think China will eventually compromise? Or do they believe that the U.S. can build a complete rare earth refining and magnet manufacturing industry from scratch within a few months? To establish such an industry requires not only massive investment but also time to accumulate technical know-how and train skilled workers. This is certainly not something that can be done overnight.
Original: toutiao.com/article/1859068556387339/
Statement: This article represents the personal views of the author.