In the last few years, the U.S. military has expended significant amounts of materiel and money in armed conflicts ranging from Ukraine to Iran.
As opposed to the counterterrorism-focused military campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq in the early 21st century – that were not heavily reliant on large inventories of drones, aircraft, ordnance, projectiles, and naval vessels – today’s conflicts rely heavily on plentiful and ready stockpiles of such capital items.
Potential future conflicts will undoubtedly do so, as well. Think China.
As a result, the conventional thinking – including among politicians on both sides of the aisle –tends to be that the U.S. military needs more missiles, surface ships, submarines, and more of the latest technologies incorporated into future hardware, for guaranteed success in future wars.
Given this growing need for more and newer hardware, the success of future American military conflicts will also rely heavily on the American industrial and economic capacity to meet those capital needs. Put simply, to build and resupply a lot of subs, ships, aircraft, drones, missiles, and other “expendable” items, it is assumed that America will need more industrial and economic capacity than it currently has.
Enter global financial behemoth JPMorganChase (JPMC). Through its $1.5 trillion Security and Resiliency Initiative (SRI), which it announced in October 2025, the company is seeking to place itself at the center of this perceived growing need for defense capacity expansion.
Through provision of financing opportunities and strategic advice – to both the Pentagon and defense industrial companies – JPMC appears to have concluded that there will be a lot of money to be made in re-building and modernizing the U.S. military in an age of technological advances and following decades of a shrinking force size. It is ready to put its own and others’ money forward in what it sees as a likely profitable series of investments in U.S. defense.
When one looks at U.S. forces today as compared to 1990, in addition to being about one-third smaller in terms of active duty personnel (two million in 1990 versus 1.3 million in 2025), the U.S. military has also shrunk in terms of its hardware.
The U.S. Navy has about 295 battle force ships today as compared to 545 in 1990, for example. The capacity to build new ships has also shrunk, as has the industrial infrastructure to replace projectiles expended in recent conflicts. In simplified terms, policy decisions in post-Cold War America shrunk the U.S. military, and the American industrial capacity to replace that hardware also shrank as a result.
As a result, the U.S. military cannot replace hardware quite as quickly as it might need to in the event of a future peer-to-peer war.
That is the gap into which JPMC has firmly inserted itself, by way of its SRI, sensing an economic opportunity in the changing geopolitical landscape.
Within this new geopolitical environment, JPMC hosted its inaugural Defense Action Forum from April 7-8. In an interview with Breaking Defense, head of its SRI effort, Jay Horine, reiterated that the U.S. government was behind in a variety of critical areas in defense, and needed “an acceleration in response.”
JPMC is poised to facilitate this acceleration. Chairman and CEO Jamie Dimon stated during the announcement of the SRI that “America needs more speed and investment” when it comes to national security.
By seeking to lead this effort in investment and consultation, JPMC undoubtedly hopes to not only boost American national security for the future, but to also reap the financial windfall that is sure to follow.
Feature Image: JOINT BASE PEARL HARBOR-HICKAM, Hawaii (NNS) — Construction workers execute a concrete pour for the Lanai Prefabricated Floor Unit (PFU), one of the major components being built for the new Dry Dock 5. Fully executed, SIOP will optimize workflow within the four naval shipyards and recapitalize obsolete capital equipment with modern technology that will dramatically increase productivity and safety. (Photo by Corwin Colbert/U.S. Navy)
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