"The effort to assist the Ukrainians has put stress on our defense industrial base," Kahl said during an event at the NATO Youth Summit.
The US needs to act both unilaterally and collectively to address the issue, including securing congressional spending authorities and training a technical workforce, Kahl said.
The US is recognizing that the defense industrial base must be viewed as a "collective good of the free world," Kahl added, stressing the importance of pursuing interoperability between allied weapons systems.