Highlights

• China imposed immediate export restrictions on seven medium and heavy rare earth categories critical to U.S. defense technology.
• The export controls could severely impact the development of Boeing's F-47 fighter jet, affecting stealth coatings, radar systems, and precision lasers.
• The U.S. must rapidly develop domestic rare earth mining, expand international partnerships, and create a comprehensive industrial policy to mitigate strategic vulnerabilities.

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China’s export controls on seven categories of medium and heavy rare earth-related items, including critical materials such as samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium, are raising alarms across the U.S. defense sector. These restrictions—effective immediately—could severely impact the development of the F-47, America's next-generation fighter jet, recently awarded to Boeing. Stealth coatings, high-thrust engines, radar systems, and precision lasers on the F-47 all depend heavily on rare earths now restricted under China's new measures.

Obviously, the Department of Defense maintains a stockpile of rare earth elements, but it is not an unlimited supply.  Thus, the U.S. defense industrial base, which sources significant quantities of medium- and heavy-rare earths from China, faces heightened vulnerability. Supposedly, in a Reuters article, two aerospace industry sources said as much.

Despite defense applications accounting for only about five percent of U.S. rare earth consumption, these specialized uses are non-substitutable at present technological levels, particularly for thermal barrier coatings and high-frequency radar systems reliant on yttrium and dysprosium.

China’s export control move, positioned by its Commerce Ministry as a matter of national security and international compliance, strategically counters U.S. reciprocal tariffs while exposing deep structural weaknesses in America’s rare earth supply chain.

In Chinese news, which must be interpreted with caution given the state-ownership, Song Zhongping, a Chinese military expert, bluntly noted that the restrictions strike at a "core spot" of U.S. military capability.

To mitigate this growing strategic risk, the United States must accelerate the development of domestic rare earth mining, separation, and magnet production capabilities, expand partnerships with allies such as Australia and Canada, and utilize stockpiling programs for critical heavy rare earths.  Rare Earth Exchanges has conveyed to the Trump administration that a holistic, integrated, and multinational approach must be taken.

China’s Rare Earth Export Controls Threaten U.S. F-47 Fighter Program: Strategic Gaps Exposed

April 26, 2025

China’s newly announced export controls on seven categories of medium and heavy rare earth-related items—including samarium, gadolinium, terbium, dysprosium, lutetium, scandium, and yttrium—are raising serious alarms across the U.S. defense sector. According to Newsweek and Bloomberg, these restrictions—effective immediately—could critically disrupt the development of the F-47, America's sixth-generation fighter jet, which was awarded to Boeing, and weaken broader military readiness. Stealth coatings, high-thrust engines, radar systems, and precision lasers, all essential to the F-47’s design, depend heavily on rare earths now subject to Beijing’s controls.

Despite defense applications accounting for only five percent of U.S. rare earth consumption, these specialized uses—especially yttrium-based thermal coatings and dysprosium-heavy magnets—are irreplaceable at current technological levels. Two industry sources told Reuters that certain rare earths are sole-sourced from China for U.S. avionics. China’s move, framed as safeguarding national security and fulfilling international obligations, strikes directly at the vulnerable core of the U.S. military-industrial base.

To transcend this threat, the United States must urgently implement a multi-front strategy. Federal incentives for advanced recycling, material substitution research, and streamlined permitting for rare earth projects are critical first steps. In parallel, the U.S. must invest heavily in education and workforce development, expanding technical training programs at universities and trade schools to rebuild domestic expertise in mining, materials science, and advanced manufacturing—skills that have atrophied over decades of offshoring.

Rare Earth Exchanges has on numerous occasions now strongly recommended to President Trump that he immediately establish a high-level negotiation team to engage with China and seek a mutually beneficial, win-win agreement to ensureuninterrupted access for U.S. defense needs over the next criticalhandful of years. Simultaneously, America must move beyond ad hoc reactions and build a full-spectrum industrial policy: one that strengthens rare earth and critical mineral supply chains from mine to magnet, secures long-term resource independence, and restores the foundation of U.S. technological and military superiority.