Highlights
- China has halted exports of samarium, a critical rare earth element essential for advanced defense systems like the F-35 fighter jet.
- The export ban could bring F-35 production to a standstill and impact global defense readiness within months.
- Beijing is strategically leveraging its rare earth monopoly to gain technological concessions from the West.
China has delivered a direct blow to Western military readiness by halting exports of samarium, a critical rare earth element essential to the production of advanced defense systems, including the F-35 fighter jet. The move underscores Beijing’s tightening grip on global security supply chains and its readiness to weaponize its dominance in rare earths amid escalating trade tensions with the United States.
The ban, imposed earlier this year and confirmed by metallurgist Stanley Trout, includes seven rare earths; however, samarium stands out for its exclusive military utility. Without it, U.S. manufacturers cannot produce the high-performance magnets used in precision missiles, smart bombs, radar systems, and fighter jet engines. Each F-35 requires up to 50 pounds of samarium-based magnets, reports India.com (opens in a new tab).
William Bain (opens in a new tab), Head of Trade Policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, warned in interviews that continued supply freezes could “bring F-35 production to a standstill.” Lockheed Martin, the U.S. defense contractor behind the F-35, is among the nation’s largest samarium buyers and is reportedly facing delays in procurement and manufacturing.
While China has resumed controlled exports of other rare earths such as dysprosium and terbium, it has withheld export licenses for samarium—deliberately exploiting its monopoly over one of the few materials with no scalable substitute in defense applications.
“The United States cannot build F-35s without Chinese samarium,” Bain stated bluntly. “And that’s already starting to impact timelines and defense readiness.”
Analysts say the move has effectively shifted the balance of the trade war away from tariffs and toward critical materials blackmail. China is reportedly using its samarium supply as leverage for concessions on access to Western technology.
With only limited stockpiles in U.S. strategic reserves, the Pentagon now faces a ticking clock. Experts warn that within months, shortages could ripple through global defense networks, delaying weapons system deliveries, halting upgrades, and paralyzing allied interoperability.
As Beijing tightens the screws, Washington is left scrambling. The crisis has reinvigorated calls for a wartime-scale mobilization of U.S. rare earth mining, magnet production, and recycling capacity, though experts caution it may take years to reduce dependency meaningfully.
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