Textiles and our Military   The United States Armed Forces’ Defense Supply Center – Philadelphia, the purchasing divisions for the Department of Defense, estimates that over 8,000 different textile items are purchased annually for use by the U.S. military, and this figure actually rises to over 30,000 line items when individual sizes are factored into the item mix.  U.S. textile companies supply the American warfighter with everything from uniforms to high tech protective clothing.  We supply defense contractors with industrial fabrics that are vital to the operation of key pieces of military equipment.   We supply every branch of the military.  We are, in the words of one former Secretary of Defense, second only to steel in importance to the Armed Forces of the United States. But if this industry, this critical supplier to the U.S. Department of Defense, is allowed to continue to be devastated by unfairly traded imports from China and other countries, where will our Armed Forces go for these 30,000 line items?  Will our soldiers have to wait for Chinese textile producers to agree to meet our military’s specifications not just for quantity but for quality?    Will our soldiers have to wait for Chinese factories to then produce the goods and ship them to the U.S. or whatever hot spot they are needed?    And if our military receives the items and they do not meet the rigid performance specifications our Defense Department has established, do we put them back on a boat to China and negotiate to start production over again?    Finally, if China’s government does not agree with a particular foreign policy or defense policy and decides to cut off the pipeline, will our warfighters be left without the items they need in a hostile combat zone?  We saw what happened when OPEC did that in 1973-74 with respect to oil.  Do we want to be faced with an embargo of potentially thousands of different textile items?  Do we want to be held hostage to the whims of China, whose form of government is diametrically opposed to ours? These are just some of the countless combat essential items the U.S. textile industry provides so support our men and women in the Armed Forces combat and flight uniforms helmets flak jackets gear for extreme weather operations parachutes aircraft fuel cells sandbags tents and shelters sheets blankets and hospital supplies airplane panels ammunition bags/pouches fabric for bullet-proof vests/helmets chemical protective suits communication lines (optical fiberglass) extreme weather protective fabrics interfacing and lining in apparel and shoes parachutes and parachute harnesses personal flotation devices pontoon bridges rafts ropes and cables ship composites stealth fighter plane graphite fibers wet suites