BATT Applauds NDAA Provision Barring Chinese Batteries in U.S. Military Equipment
Washington, D.C. – The BATT Coalition applauds congressional leaders for including a provision in the final version of the FY26 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would require the Department of War to ensure that by 2028 no Chinese or other adversarial nations are supplying key battery components for U.S. military systems.
“This is a major step in building a more robust domestic and allied supply chain for these specialized components that go into drones, undersea submersibles, and so many other military systems and services,” said BATT Executive Director Samm Gillard. “Passage will compel government contractors to identify their supply chain gaps for these technologies and materials and assess what resources they need for us to move away from China.”
The BATT Coalition, founded in 2024, is a growing network of innovators from across the domestic battery supply chain, including recent additions Entegris, Ferroglobe, Sila Nanotechnologies, GDI, and Amprius Technologies.
BATT members have made the sourcing requirement in the NDAA a top priority this year and led efforts to build a coalition to advocate for its adoption, including meeting with DoW and Commerce Department leaders. The House-Senate conference report on the defense policy bill drew support of key lawmakers, defense officials, and industry innovators.
BATT members believe the requirement can play an integral role in fostering more robust and agile supply chains. Our battery markets are tailored for electric vehicle applications due to the much higher volumes. In the process, we have effectively ceded smaller markets like defense applications to China, whose government subsidies enables it to dominate production of these specialized cells needed in lower volumes for lower cost.
“We believe American industry is ready to begin filling this critical vulnerability in our national defense,” said BATT Policy Director Drew Ronneberg. “The House and Senate Armed Services Committees have laid out a clear path forward and BATT members stand ready to play a leading role in getting us there.”
“This has been a major objective for the coalition in this past year,” added Gillard. “The BATT Coalition is looking forward to working with the DOW on implementation.”
The House is expected to take up the legislation as soon as this week as the NDAA moves towards final passage in both chambers.
The Battery Advocacy for Technology Transformation (BATT) Coalition is an industry coalition dedicated to increasing domestic production of raw materials and components for electric batteries. Follow us on LinkedIn.