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Amid war in the Middle East, US’s intervention in Israel Iran war can be seen through its military support to Israel and strategic deterrence against Iranian actions. To help Israel, US has deployed THAAD, its advanced defense systems, and Patriot batteries. As US continues to support Israel, China has come up as a big threat with its possession of a rare earth metal. Not just this, globally the Asian giant boasts of the biggest share of rare earth elements. However, out of this treasure, the element that it completely controls is samarium, a rare earth mineral, which means that China holds samarium’s 100% global supply.  

How China's control over samarium hurts US

It is used only in military industries that help in making fighter planes, missiles, smart bombs, and other advanced platforms and nowhere else. Why the possession of this strategic resource gives an edge to China is because one US F-35 fighter jet, needs up to 23kg of samarium magnets for its construction. However, as it has sole control over samarium, China has put a ban on its export in April along with six other rare earths as the trade war with the US is underway and it can use this ban to gain a bargaining edge in the tussle.   

The two countries have made a deal under which US manufacturers will get export licenses for only six months giving China an upper hand in case trade tensions rise again. China possesses seven rare earths and six of them-dysprosium, gadolinium, lutetium, scandium, terbium, and yttrium- are used for civilian purposes. Other ways in which it can damage US and other Western militaries are by hurting deliveries of new platforms and impacting repair, maintenance, and upgrading of existing ones. 

With possession of rare earth metal used only for military purposes, military and even electronics industries worldwide have been shaken. This has led automakers, defense contractors, and such industries to look for alternatives. Even US automakers like Tesla and Ford have been impacted by this as halt in exports have disturbed production.