U.S. Defense Industry Dodged a Rare-Earth Shortage After China's Curbs
nytimes.com
3 points by rediguanayum a month ago
· 1 comment
* US military depends on samarium instead of neodymium magnets due to it's high heat tolerance.
* For example samarium rare-earth magnets motors are used to control the fins of Tomahawk cruise missiles.
* Due to tariff war, China cut off some rare-earth exports including samarium
* Contractors got creative with sourcing about 100 tons of samarium from France and processing in Europe and United States
* Future sources of samarium need to be discovered