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Federal Register / Vol. 86, No. 213 / Monday, November 8, 2021 / Notices The DOD partners with the commercial automotive sector to conduct pre-competitive research in areas that ultimately prove to have commercial and defense applications.
For example, the DOD is a partner in LIFT Lightweight Innovations for Tomorrow, an industry-led, government-funded consortium, along with General Dynamics and the Original Equipment Supplier Association, which represents commercial automobile parts suppliers. LIFT is part of a national network of research institutions and industrial companies geared toward advancing Americas leadership in manufacturing technology. 159
Ansys, Inc
Ballard Power Systems, Inc
Robert Bosch
Detroit Diesel Corporation
Ford Motor Company
General Motors Corporation
Quantum Signal LLC
Soar Technology
Argonne National Lab
Environmental Protection Agency EPA
National Renewable Energy Lab

University Centers of Excellence COEs seek to expand the frontiers of knowledge in research areas where the Army has enduring needs. COEs couple state-of-the-art research programs at academic institutions with broad-based graduate education programs to help increase the supply of scientists and engineers in automotive and rotary wing technology.160
DODs TARDEC 161 and GM have enjoyed a successful fuel cell-focused collaborative research relationship for years, beginning with a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement to test fuel cell stacks. This relationship grew through the development of the AVL North America, Inc
BETA CAE Systems USA
Caterpillar
FEV Group
General Dynamics Land Systems
HBM nCode
RAMDO Solutions
Ultra AMI
Army Research Lab
National Aeronautics and Space Administration NASA Jet Propulsion Lab.
Oak Ridge National Lab.

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Chevrolet Colorado ZH2 light truck, which debuted in 2016 and was tested and demonstrated by the U.S. Army over the next year. GM presented SURUS a hydrogen fuel cell vehicle in 2017 at the annual meeting of the Association of the United States Army.162
The Automotive Research Center, a U.S. Army Center of Excellence for Modeling and Simulation of Ground Vehicles led by the University of Michigan, partners with the following government and private sector entities for R&D advancements:163

BAE Systems.
Boeing Research and Technology.
Daimler.
Fiat Chrysler.
GE Global Research.
Henkel North America.
Rolls-Royce North America.
Yokohama Rubber, Inc.
Cold Regions Test Center.
National Institute of Standards and Technology, U.S. Department of Commerce.

The supplier is a U.S. affiliate of a foreign-owned parent.

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These examples illustrate the intense level of cooperation between the commercial and military vehicle sectors and the importance of commercial R&D
spending in the United States that supports U.S. military leadership.
Finally, while the U.S. military presently benefits from R&D
investments by both American-owned and foreign-owned companies in the United States, it is important to underscore that, in the time of national emergency, foreign-owned subsidiaries may not be willing or able to continue their R&D collaboration with the U.S.
Government. Nor would it be logical to expect foreign R&D enterprises in the United States to share their research and patented technology with Americanowned competitors. It is for this reason that innovation by American-owned firms is essential to U.S. national security and, as explained in the following section, the overall weakening of the United States automotive industry adversely impacts Americanowned firms ability to invest in R&D in 159 LIFT, Manufacturing USA, https
lift.technology/manufacturingusa/.
160 John F. Sargent Jr., Defense Science and Technology Funding, Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service, R45110, Feb. 21, 2018, https crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/
R/R45110.
161 TARDEC, https tardec.army.mil/.

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order to maintain leadership in technologies that have important military applications.

The 2018 U.S. National Defense Strategy explicitly states that new commercial technology will change . . .
the character of war and that many technological developments will come from the commercial sector. 164 In describing necessary tactics to solidify the U.S. militarys competitive advantage, the National Defense Strategy emphasizes that the DOD must invest broadly in the rapid application of commercial breakthroughs.165 Comparing the TEXT
REDACTED establishes the importance of maintaining a robust automotive R&D
presence in the United States. In 2017, foreignand American-owned automobile producers spent TEXT
REDACTED on R&D in the United States, with American-owned producers
accounting for TEXT REDACTED of that total, compared to TEXT
REDACTED spent on R&D by armored vehicle producers.166 TEXT
REDACTED.167 Therefore, U.S.
armored vehicle producers, and by extension the U.S. military, depend on the continued U.S. leadership and innovation of the commercial automotive sector.
Given the importance of automobile engines, transmissions and electrical systems to technological advancements in military transportation vehicles, and given the importance of co-locating R&D
and manufacturing for these technologies, it is imperative that the United States maintain and grow a robust commercial automobile and automobile parts industry. Designing and producing automobile parts is a massive engineering challenge, which is why automobile producers globally continue to increase spending on R&D.
An automobile purchased today is the product of years of R&D investments.
Typically, it takes five years or more for
162 Douglas Halleaux, TARDEC, GM bring SURUS
to Smithsonian and SOFIC, Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, U.S. Army Tank Automotive Research Development & Engineering Center, https www.dvidshub.net/news/277762/
tardec-gm-bring-surus-smithsonian-and-sofic.
163 Automotive Research Center, Industry Partners, http arc.engin.umich.edu/about/
industry-partners.html.

164 Department of Defense, Summary of the 2018
National Defense Strategy of the United States of America, Jan. 2018, https dod.defense.gov/
Portals/1/Documents/pubs/2018-National-DefenseStrategy-Summary.pdf at 3.
165 Id. at 7.
166 U.S. Producers Survey Responses, Question 10a.
167 Id.

2. Growth of American-Owned R&D for Critical Automobile Parts Is Essential To Strengthen U.S. National Security
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