The Pentagon’s Emergency: Rare Earths

The US military issued a new emergency mineral procurement request the day before it struck Iran. Thirteen minerals. Twenty days to respond. Most investors still haven’t connected the two events.

Every F-35 fighter jet contains roughly 920 pounds of rare earth materials. Every Tomahawk cruise missile requires them. Every guided bomb, every radar array, every submarine sonar system depends on a category of minerals that one country controls at every step of the production chain.

That country is China. And on February 28, 2026, the US Pentagon effe…