Eggs, Ogres, and Lasers: Unraveling the Rare Earth Puzzle in Modern Warfare

Dive into the Geopolitical Kitchen Where High-Tech Weapons Cook and Global Powers Clash Over Precious Lanthanides

Image created by Dalle-3 AI

Let’s talk omelettes. You can’t make an omelette without breaking a few eggs. So, let’s get cracking! Say you wanted to craft a Western (also known as Denver) Omelette: you would need eggs, ham, spring onions, cheese, green pepper, etc. What would an omelette be without eggs: a stir fry, maybe?

The reason for the above analogy is simple: modern high-tech weapons and other military hardware require lanthanides (also known as rare earth materials) for their production. They are the eggs in the proverbial advanced munitions omelette. Just as your omelette is hard to create without eggs, modern advanced weaponry and military hardware are difficult to manufacture without lanthanides (REEs/REMs).

Some of the specific weapons and military hardware that rely on lanthanides are:

Guided missiles: Lanthanides are integral to guidance systems, sensors, and the propulsion systems of missiles like the Tomahawk, Javelin, and the Patriot.

Lasers: Solid-state lasers require Lanthanides. These lasers are vital parts for targeting, communication, and countermeasures systems. For example, the AN/SEQ-3 Laser Weapon System (LaWS) uses a neodymium-doped yttrium aluminium garnet (Nd: YAG) laser to destroy drones, boats, and rockets.

Radar: Magnets, antennas, and electronic components in radar systems include Lanthanides. This equipment is essential for the detection, tracking, and identification of targets. For example, the AN/APG-81 radar system used by the F-35 Lightning II stealth fighter uses lanthanum, cerium, praseodymium, neodymium, samarium, and gadolinium in its components.

Night vision: Night vision devices use Lanthanides in their image intensifiers and infrared detectors, which enable soldiers to see in low-light conditions. For example, the AN/PVS-14 Monocular Night Vision Device (MNVD) uses a lanthanum-based glass lens and a cerium-doped yttrium aluminium perovskite (YAP: Ce) scintillator to amplify ambient light and produce a green image.

Satellites: The solar panels, batteries, and communication systems of satellites use Lanthanides. These systems provide navigation, surveillance, and communication services. For example, the Global Positioning System (GPS) satellites use europium-doped strontium aluminate (SrAl_2O_4:Eu) phosphors to convert solar energy into electricity and neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets to orient their antennas.

As you can see, lanthanides (rare-earth metals and rare-earth elements) are vital in defensive and offensive high-tech weaponry and defensive systems. Now that we have nailed down the importance of rare-earth materials, let's look at the supply and demand quandary. For that, omelettes, ogres, bears, chickens, and eggs are the order of discussion.

For analogy's sake, a foreign ogre comes over for a visit, an angry, aggressive, and destructive beast it is. ogres have a soft spot for omelettes. Eating five omelettes will keep them under control and calm their aggressive tendencies, and you have ten chickens. You can keep him at bay by making five two-egg omelettes daily, ad infinitum, or until your chickens pass over the rainbow bridge. You also have one hundred eggs in storage, lovely. That means you have a ten-day reserve.

Now, let’s chuck a fox into that comfortable henhouse. You have a friend with a hungry, aggressive, omelette-loving bear visiting them that needs two omelettes a day to satiate his murderous rampages. So, you send him two omelettes daily: what happens to your reserves? They shrink!

Now, heaven forbid, a friend of the ogre or bear hears about the omelettes and comes to visit you: Oh, crap, chronic depletion of my eggs and not enough chickens to ramp up supply. Soon, the ogre and the bear will rampage, and we will not have the capacity to create enough omelettes to satiate them. Destruction ensues!

The moral of this story is rooted in real-world events and supply-chain challenges. The Russo-Ukrainian war has drained Western stocks of advanced weaponry, both offensive and defensive. Russia is lobbing thousands of cheap drones at Ukraine and Iranian-backed Houthis, keep lobbing cheap missiles and drones at shipping lanes in the Red Sea, and we keep sending expensive missiles to shoot them down. This scenario is unsustainable, as we are running low on lanthanides to make more missiles.

China, which produces about 80% of global lanthanides, is not keen on selling them to us, as they have their ogres and bears to feed. They also have a strategic interest in limiting our military capabilities, as they are competing with us for global influence. What can we do to avoid a catastrophic scenario where we run out of omelettes and face the wrath of the ogres and bears?

There are some alternatives or solutions to this dilemma, such as:

Diversify the sources of lanthanides: We can try to find and exploit other deposits of lanthanides around the world, such as in Australia, Canada, Brazil, and Africa. However, this would require significant investments, environmental impacts, and geopolitical risks, as well as time and expertise to develop the mining and processing infrastructure.

Recycling and reusing the lanthanides: We can try to recover and reuse the lanthanides from the waste and scrap of our military and civilian products, such as missiles, lasers, radar, night vision, satellites, smartphones, laptops, and electric vehicles. However, this would require efficient and cost-effective separation and purification methods and incentives and regulations to encourage the collection and recycling of end-of-life products.

Reducing the dependence on lanthanides: We can try to design and develop new weapons and military hardware that use less or no lanthanides or substitute them with other materials that have similar or better properties. However, this would require breakthroughs in science and technology, as well as testing and validation of the performance and reliability of the new products.

These solutions are not easy or quick, but they are necessary and urgent. We must act before it is too late, and we have no omelettes, eggs, or time.

Image public domain

PS: Lanthanides are from 57 to 71 on the periodic table.

References

US Testing Its Monstrously Powerful Laser Gun. (2023). Retrieved from

(2023). Lanthanides: Properties and Reactions. Retrieved from https://chem.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Inorganic_Chemistry/Supplemental_Modules_and_Websites_(Inorganic_Chemistry)/Descriptive_Chemistry/Elements_Organized_by_Block/4_f-Block_Elements/The_Lanthanides/aLanthanides%3A_Properties_and_Reactions#:~:text=The%20Lanthanides%20consist%20of%20the,the%20rest%20of%20the%20elements.

Detsch, J., & Mackinnon, A. (2022). Ukraine’s Appetite for Weapons Is Straining Western Stockpiles. Retrieved from https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/11/16/ukraine-weapons-military-aid-stockpiles-nato-low-industry/