Official account of the Office of the Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Policy. Following, shares, likes, and links do not constitute endorsement.
Congratulations to the FY25 nominees for the Vanguard Award, which is presented to the #DoW component organization that best exemplifies commitment to small business programs in a variety of functional activities.
Winner announced June 17 at #SBTW26.
#VanguardAwards
Congratulations to the FY25 nominees for the Verdure Award, which recognizes teams developing innovative acquisition strategies that increase small business participation and strengthen the defense industrial base. Winner announced June 17 at #SBTW26.
#DoW#VanguardAwards
The time to act on Defense Industrial Base challenges is now! No nation can do it alone. On the first day of the Multinational Armaments Resilience Seminar (MARS) earlier this month, keynote speaker Hon. Michael Cadenazzi, Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Policy ( @oaswibp ), brought focus and energy to the discussion, engaging over 30 leaders from across the Indo-Pacific and Euro-Atlantic regions with real-world insights and experience. Through MARS, @DKIAPCSS is forging the partnerships needed to strengthen industrial resilience, enhance deterrence, and tackle the toughest DIB challenges—together.
#MARS2026 #Resilience #IndoPacific #SecurityCooperation #DIB #Partnerships
Save the date for Small Business Training Week (SBTW) 2026:
📅 June 15–18, 2026
📍 The Roosevelt Hotel, New Orleans, La.
Our signature workforce training event for the acquisition workforce, small biz professionals & APEX Accelerators. Registration details shared soon! #SBTW26
Moving from prototype to production at speed & scale is vital for a strong defense industrial base.
Autonomous maritime systems are proving that allied collaboration and scalable manufacturing are the keys to a resilient, mission-ready future.
Link in comments. 👇
Register now for Assistant Secretary of War Hon. Michael Cadenazzi's May 5 fireside chat with @ABAesq on @DeptofWar's radically different approaches to revitalizing the defense industrial base and securing national security supply chains. 👇
Join us for From the War Room to the Board Room: Strengthening the Defense Industrial Base featuring Assistant Secretary Michael Cadenazzi in conversation with Brian Egan.
A timely look at the future of U.S. defense and industry.
https://t.co/yT4BQYbkLs
We need new entrants to the DIB to expand capacity and bring in needed innovation. Thank you to @DeptofWar Mentor Protege Program participants - your contributions really matter!
Learn more at https://t.co/k9Hg22nxaX
Hon. Michael Cadenazzi, ASW @OASWIBP, delivered a strong #MPP26 keynote: revitalizing the defense industrial base requires new approaches, new partners, and real urgency. From factory to foxhole, #MPP drives capacity and innovation. #DoW#DIB
We're teaming up with @BoeingDefense & @LockheedMartin to 3x production of Patriot Advanced Capability-3 (PAC-3) MSE seekers. This new acquisition model means a stronger supply chain & faster delivery for our nation's defenders.
Learn more: https://t.co/QcNxGyhQnk…
Learn more about opportunities to join us as a DIB partner here: https://t.co/AHrErqDiem. And learn about “Made in America Loan Guarantees" at https://t.co/idTDfMnl5y.
"Made in America Loan Guarantees" will help manufacturers expand facilities, hire workers & increase production–including within the DIB. Small businesses have an urgent role to play in delivering radically different solutions for our Warfighters at the scale & speed needed.👇
.@thejointstaff Chairman Gen. Dan Caine thanks the Americans who work our national assembly lines:
"We carry the weapons that you build. We rely on the systems that you create, and the distance from that factory floor and that assembly line, to the front line, is incredibly short. Thank you — keep it up!"
Thanks for your kind words & the great conversation, @mikeroweworks!
We currently have 400,000 skilled trades job openings in the defense industrial base. Time to change that!
Looking forward to getting things done & making skilled trades cool again together.
Sixteen years ago, I went to DC to tell Congress, (both Houses), that the skilled trades were in desperate need of reinvigorating, and that America’s skills gap was on the road to becoming a national emergency. I had launched mikeroweWORKS two years earlier and wanted to make sure our elected officials knew that I was willing to work with the Obama administration – or any administration, for that matter - to help train the next generation of skilled workers. Toward that end, I shared my belief that America needed a robust campaign to encourage a new generation of kids to explore careers in the skilled trades, and that the government had an important role to play in that effort.
My testimony was met with a level of enthusiasm that I found encouraging. Representatives on both sides of the aisle reached out to thank me for coming. They all acknowledged the problem, agreed with my solution, and invited me to collaborate, brainstorm, and join forces to help them close America's skills gap. Then, after a few dozen seminars, symposiums, colloquiums, round tables, factory tours, ribbon cuttings, and various other photo ops, I eventually realized that most of the elected officials who had reached out were less interested in closing the skills gap and more interested in getting reelected. Which is why I didn’t return the calls of this week’s guest when he reached out last year to see if I might consider working with the Pentagon to make the skilled trades cool again.
In my defense, Michael Cadenazzi had not yet been confirmed when he reached out. He'd only been nominated to serve as the Assistant Secretary of War for Industrial Base Policy, but when the Senate finally did confirm him, he reached out again and asked if we could meet in DC. Then, when I googled him to see what he actually did, I went to the Pentagon to say hello.
Today, Mike Cadenazzi is the principal advisor to the Under Secretary of War. His primary job is to develop and maintain the Defense Industrial Base (DIB) to ensure a secure supply of materials critical to our national security. He's also in charge of the current workforce within the military industrial base and determined to do something about the appalling shortage of skilled workers we now face. Which is why he called me in the first place, and why we’ve been talking seriously for several months about the skilled trades campaign I proposed sixteen years ago.
Obviously, I don’t have a crystal ball, and don’t yet know exactly what will come of our meetings. But I'm hopeful. In the last sixteen years, few people in the federal government have impressed me to this degree. Mike spent ten years as an active-duty U.S. Navy cryptologic warfare officer before entering the private sector, where he launched several successful companies in the aerospace & defense industries. In other words, he walked away from a pretty great career to tackle this enormous problem. He's the opposite of a bureaucrat, and I’m flattered that he thinks mikeroweWORKS might be a worthy partner.
Here then, with no further ado, is a man accustomed to getting shit done. I think you’re gonna like him.
Our whole conversation is here. https://t.co/nzRm1num5a
Thanks for an inspiring visit to @ApexSpacecraft, @IanCinnamon & @mxbenassi. Space is a contested domain & an indispensable theater of operations – from GPS to satellite communications and missile tracking. Companies like yours are vital to the DIB. Grateful for your partnership.
Thank you to the Honorable Michael Cadenazzi for joining the Apex team for a fireside chat to discuss the critical role companies like Apex play in the U.S. defense industrial base.
From the @OASWIBP, Hon. Cadenazzi serves as the principal advisor to Under Secretary of War @USDASDuffey on industrial base policy and leads the @DeptofWar's efforts to strengthen and sustain the U.S. defense industrial base.
Under his leadership, IBP is playing a key role in expanding the defense industrial base, restoring innovation, and accelerating production through new entrants like Apex that are accelerating and challenging the traditional acquisition process.
Apex is proud to play a critical and growing role in the U.S. defense industrial base.
How do you rebuild the defense industrial base? You stop tinkering at the edges and go all-in. Tune in to @DeptofWar ASW Hon. Cadenazzi's @WarOnTheRocks convo with @EvansRyan202, where they talk about work underway to achieve radically different outcomes. https://t.co/na2H5GjKue
Today we’re launching LYNX—a new digital platform that helps businesses engage with defense markets and move from capability to opportunity. Built for small and non-traditional suppliers. Registration now open: https://t.co/Yt14lKytNR #DIB#govcon#defensetech#smallbiz@OASWIBP
Sign up through the Cornerstone Consortium or the DIB Consortium to connect with IBP. Stay tuned for upcoming announcements that will help small businesses with cybersecurity certification, go-to-market, and more. https://t.co/8gDjb4LQ2h https://t.co/ZpLbc0lDVy @BusinessDefense
ASW HON Michael Cadenazzi joined Mike Shanley on the GovDiscovery AI podcast & shared how businesses can partner with @DeptofWar to revitalize the defense industrial base. Listen to the episode & learn how to sign up for updates in the comments. https://t.co/74HN4ImlJB