DARPA Launches SMART Program to Secure U.S. Critical Minerals Supply Chain

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has unveiled the Strategic Materials Accelerator & Research Test Bed (SMART), a new initiative aimed at securing the U.S. supply chain for critical minerals and rare earth elements (REEs). Located at the University of Utah, the testbed will serve as a national hub to bridge the gap between lab-scale innovations and industrial deployment, addressing a key vulnerability in global supply chains that threaten both defense and commercial technologies. SMART focuses on reducing American dependence on foreign sources, particularly China, which dominates rare earth production. The program will allow researchers and companies to test and refine extraction and processing technologies under real-world conditions, lowering the risks of scaling new methods. Sha-Chelle Manning, chief of DARPA’s Commercial Strategy Office, emphasized that the challenge lies not in invention but in translating breakthroughs into practical, large-scale solutions. Early users of the facility include teams from DARPA’s EMBER program, which is developing biotechnology-based approaches to extract REEs from unconventional domestic sources such as mine waste, acid drainage sites, and electronic recycling streams. Tiffany Prest, EMBER program manager, highlighted the opportunity to refine these innovations through SMART’s infrastructure, accelerating their transition into viable domestic resources. The initiative aligns with broader U.S. efforts to rebuild domestic industrial capacity for strategic materials, ensuring supply resilience in peacetime and strategic autonomy in potential future conflicts. Jakob Jensen, associate vice president for research at the University of Utah, noted that SMART’s integration of discovery, benchmarking, and scaling infrastructure is essential for advancing materials innovation rigorously and impactfully. DARPA’s move reflects a geopolitical shift as nations seek to reduce reliance on concentrated rare earth supply chains. Control over extraction and processing is increasingly seen as a lever of national power, particularly as critical minerals become foundational to defense, clean energy, and advanced electronics. SMART represents a step toward rebuilding parts of this industrial base domestically, reinforcing U.S. economic and national security.