Key semiconductor chips used in F-35 fighter fighters and commercial satellites will be produced in New Hampshire four times over with a $35 million award from the U.S. Commerce Department.
The $52.7 billion "Chips for America" semiconductor manufacturing and research subsidy program, which Congress approved in August 2022 to increase U.S. chip production in response to worries about dependence on Asia, is making its first announcement.
In a statement, President Joe Biden promised to increase research and development spending and "award billions more to make more semiconductors in America over the coming year" by the Department of Commerce. The government said that it has inked a non-binding preliminary memorandum of agreement to give $35 million to BAE Systems Electronic Systems, a division of BAE Systems, in order to help modernize the Microelectronics Center of the corporation in Nashua, New Hampshire.
In the upcoming decades, the Pentagon intends to purchase 2,500 aircraft as part of its $1.7 trillion investment in the F-35 program. For F-15s and F-35s, according to White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, the chips are essential. The Commerce Department tried to stop the shipping of cutting-edge artificial intelligence chips to China in October after issuing regulations in September to stop China from abusing chip subsidies.
GlobalFoundries, Micron, and Intel are a few of the businesses requesting large financing from the chip program. Gina Raimondo, the secretary of commerce, stated that the BAE grant "is the first of many announcements." We predict that in the first part of next year, the rate at which these announcements are made will quicken."
According to an administration official, the $35 million cost of the New Hampshire initiative will be more than compensated by the 50% price reduction in chips that come out in the future. The chips are utilized in Lockheed Martin-built F-35s' electronic warfare systems in combat situations.
