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The Pentagon and the Small Business Administration have announced the creation of the Smaller War Plants Commission, reviving a World War II program designed to put cash and know-how in the hands of small defense contractors.

Some shit you should know before you dig in: Back in 1942, Congress created the original Smaller War Plants Corporation under the War Production Board to help small firms that could not compete with the big companies holding the wartime contracts. It lent them money, secured them contracts, leased them equipment, and walked them through the technical side of production so they could build weapons and the civilian goods the country still needed. Its mission eventually carried over to the SBA.

What’s going on now: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and SBA Administrator Kelly Loeffler announced the commission Tuesday in a three-minute joint video posted on X, and that video is essentially all anyone has. Neither official said how much money is behind it, who will run it, when it starts, which companies qualify, or whether the funding comes as loans, grants, contracts, or something else.

Hegseth said, “American battlefield readiness runs through our small businesses, and it always has. The vehicles, the planes and even the rifles in our warfighters’ hands rely on a supply chain of hundreds of specialty producers.”

He added, “Our message is clear: President Trump is ending the era of dependence on foreign supply chains and our adversaries. This historic long-term commitment will reinforce the industrial depth that stands proudly behind the strongest military on earth. When we back the businesses who supply our forces, we outbuild, out innovate and overwhelm any adversary.”

Loeffler said small manufacturers make up 70% of the US defense industrial base and that the SBA oversees nearly $500 billion in its small business portfolio. “Our joint mission will supercharge funding to those building our supply chain, tooling up, expanding, innovating and hiring to deliver capability to the warfighter,” she said. “The era of offshoring the production of power projection to our adversaries is over.”

The commission follows other moves in the same direction. Two weeks ago, the SBA put up $20 million for a Critical Suppliers Prize Competition, aimed at the narrow points in the supply chain where a single shop can hold up an entire weapons program. Another $50 million went to trade schools and community colleges to build a pipeline of workers for those same shops.