7. Sufficient Domestic Capacity

Comment: Many respondents stated that there is sufficient domestic capacity of armor steel plate melted, rolled, quenched, and tempered in the United States to meet DoD's demand and that the number of specialty metal steel manufacturers has increased since 2006.

DoD Response: One of the reasons for including quenching and tempering of armor steel plate in the definition of "produce" was an assessment that there was an insufficient amount of thin-gauge MIL-A grade steel armor to meet peak demand to satisfy critical need for Mine Resistant Ambush Protection (MRAP) vehicles for contingency operations. Since that time, the U.S. industrial base has grown (even with the current definition of "produce"). In fact, both the number of specialty metal steel plate manufacturers and their overall production capacities have increased steadily since the current definition of "produce" was introduced. Further, some of the manufacturers that were previously sourcing specialty metals melted in Mexico for quenching and tempering in the United States, are now obtaining steel melted in Canada (which is a qualifying country and part of the national technology and industrial base). DoD's assessment is that there is now sufficient capacity to meet DoD requirements, if DoD were to remove "quenching and tempering" from the definition of "produce."