I realize this topic is closer to /biz/ than it is /k/, but it ties into military logistics. I hope it'll be better than the one that the chinkspammer made in bad faith the other day anyway.

As we all know Orange Man has done a little trolling with tariffs yet again which has promoted Xi the Pooh to effectively cut off existing exports on REEs and add another 5 to that list. Anywhere talking about US arms and you'll have some thirdie or wumao screaming about magnets and it's only gotten worse since Friday.

What I want to bring up though is that at least for defense related REEs, China has literally no leverage.
>Take China's 2020 Unreliable Entity List for example, basically a full sanction of any types of imports or exports to China on a company.
Lockmart and friends were added to the UEL in Feb 2023. So uhh, how are they still pumping out 160 F-35s and 2000 AMRAAMS in 2025 when they've been cut off for 2 years?

So say that's only been able to continue because of dual sourcing, internal rerouting or something. Stockpiles. Even before Trump started the tariffs and restrictions started, stockpiles on were estimated to be between 14-18 months worth. Then there was the 90 day tariff truce period in which REE exports from China to the US went up by 70% in the first month alone. So no idea about stockpiles now, but it sure as hell is higher than the 14-18 month previous estimate.

>(cont)