The same truth applies to global supply chains. The US Department of Defense’s US$400 million investment in rare-earth producer MP Materials marks a watershed. Arafura’s Nolans project is fully permitted and tied to allied rare earth supply chains. Australia could lock itself deeper into US supply chains with mid-stream processing capacity, vanadium conversion, titanium processing, rare earth separation, and recycling pilots for tungsten and vanadium scrap. Defence cannot be expected to pay for every road, port or energy project.