China controls over 80% of critical materials used in batteries essential for United States defense technologies, a new report revealed on Monday.

A report from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, “Unplugging Beijing,” outlined how China obtained a stranglehold over all aspects of the battery supply chain. Aside from the economic issues this caused, China’s dominance of the supply chain is argued to pose a dire threat to national security due to batteries’ essential use in drones, handheld radios, autonomous submersibles, lasers, and directed energy weapons.