US Doubles Down on Minerals, Manufacturing and Nuclear Power for Defense

President Trump is ending America’s dependence on foreign supply chains and our adversaries.

That’s why the @DeptofWar, alongside our partners at @SBAgov, is reestablishing the Smaller War Plants Commission. pic.twitter.com/jKqOtExXmR

— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) August 25, 2026

Watch Secretary of War Pete Hegseth introduce the Smaller War Plants Commission and the goal of the newly minted department.

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said the commission is meant to rebuild domestic production capacity rather than "accepting a hollowed-out industrial base." "We are restoring the industrial dominance that made the United States the decisive force of the twentieth century and applying it to the threats of this century," he said.

The SWPC takes its name from the Smaller War Plants Corporation, a World War II-era SBA predecessor that helped small manufacturers secure financing, contracts and technical support; its authorities were folded into the SBA in 1953.

Under the new framework, the agencies plan to build an inventory of small business production capacity through the Civil Reserve Manufacturing Network (CRMN), form joint teams to remove regulatory bottlenecks, and report periodically to President Trump on industrial readiness and supply-chain gaps.

On financing, the SBA will prioritize defense-critical sectors for its lending, capital-investment and contracting programs. Named focus areas include munitions and components, drones and one-way attack systems, microelectronics, strategic and critical minerals, shipbuilding and repair components, sensors, batteries, castings and forgings, and textiles.

Eligible manufacturers will also gain access to the SBA's Made in America Loan Guarantee, delivered through its International Trade Loan program, which carries a 90 percent federal guarantee, above the 75 percent standard under the agency's flagship 7(a) loan program. The guarantee can be used to finance equipment purchases, facility modernization, inventory and domestic capacity expansion.

Army awards up to US$2.2 billion for on-base nuclear microreactors

Separately, the US Army on August 26 awarded contracts worth up to $2.2 billion combined to five companies to build nuclear microreactors at military bases, under a program called Janus.

The five companies and their assigned bases: Antares Nuclear at Fort Bragg, North Carolina; BWXT Advanced Technologies at Fort Campbell, Kentucky; General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems at Fort Hood, Texas; Radiant Industries at Fort Benning, Georgia; and Westinghouse Government Services at Fort Drum, New York.

Radiant's award was reported at US$750 million for 15 of its 1-megawatt Kaleidos reactors; contract values for the other four companies were not disclosed. The Army expects to field more than 20 reactors across Department of Defense installations in total.

The reactors are designed to generate independent baseload power at bases rather than relying solely on commercial electrical grids, though the bases will remain grid-connected. General Atomics' design is a 5-megawatt system scalable to 20 megawatts and transportable by rail or truck.

The program traces to a May 2025 executive order, and the Army has set a target of September 30, 2028 for the first advanced reactor to be operational at a domestic base.

Army Secretary Dan Driscoll said the contracts will help "deliver safe, reliable baseload power directly to our installations" and build the "energy resilience necessary to project combat power globally," without relying on "potentially vulnerable external grids."

The critical minerals through-line

Taken together, the two announcements illustrate how the defense-manufacturing and energy-independence pushes are converging on the same set of inputs.

The SWPC explicitly names strategic and critical minerals as a priority sector for SBA lending and contracting support. The Janus microreactor buildout, meanwhile, will require a steady supply of nuclear fuel and specialty materials as reactors move from pilot sites toward full deployment — though neither the Army's announcement nor the coverage reviewed detailed sourcing plans for that fuel or those materials.

That gap is worth watching. Junior miners and suppliers in the uranium and critical minerals space may find both new demand signals and new federal support mechanisms opening up as these programs move from announcement to execution.