The Department of Defense is taking a defined posture when it comes to key suppliers of weapons and services. In order to win contracts, production plants must be secured against terrorist attacks. Assistant Secretary of Defense for Homeland Defense, Paul McHale , stated that requirements for plant security will be included in future contracts with companies that possess facilities that have been designated as essential to US war fighting capability. This direction displays heightened concern on the part of the US military.

Last month, McHale stated in an address at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC that the DOD has a responsibility to ensure that having its access to essential weapons or supplies crippled cannot cut off the US military. The military must be protected when it comes to insuring security of critical defense contractors. A method to insure this is to require critical defense companies to increase security at their plants, he said. ?Most plants are pretty secure, but we can?t afford to have a gap or a seam,? he said. Nevertheless, security costs money, and McHale said he does not know how it will inflate the cost. ?We don?t want this to be onerous or unreasonable or inordinately expensive, but we want defense plants to be protected.? Defense companies can add this into their billable rates, and it ?will become part of the cost of doing business,? he said.