Recommendation 3: The federal government should improve and secure the systems for gathering data and information—both at home and abroad—on the availability of materials for defense needs. It must be able to obtain accurate data on

• The geographic locations of secure supplies of critical materials and of alternative supplies;

• The potential for market and geopolitical disruptions as well as logistical and transportation upsets and the risks posed by them; and

• The use of materials in defense applications, in the nondefense industrial sectors of the United States, and in the rest of the world’s large commodity-consuming nations.