The U.S. Department of Defense has awarded $133 million in contracts to increase the availability of N95 protective masks, Lt. Col. Mike Andrews announced on Tuesday.

The coronavirus pandemic has created acute shortages of protective gear, particularly the N95 masks, which filter out 95% of airborne particles. The shortages have forced medical workers to reuse masks and prompted authorities to seize hoarded equipment. The military is now stepping in, investing hundreds of millions of dollars into shoring up domestic production.

The funds are being allocated under Title III of the Defense Production Act, which allows the President to build and maintain industrial bases necessary for national defense.

“The increased production will ensure the U.S. Government gets dedicated long term industrial capacity to meet the needs of the nation,” Andrews said at the time.

President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act in response to the coronavirus pandemic after criticism from Democrats, using it in early April to ensure the supply of life-support machines and N-95 masks. He has since extended the act to cover cotton swabs used for virus tests.

The Department of Defense first announced White House approval for a $133 million project to increase N95 masks on April 11, although it had not yet awarded the contracts.

The bulk of the funds, about $76 million, will be awarded to industry giant 3M. O&M Halyward and Honeywell will receive the remainder.

The investment should allow the companies to increase their U.S.-based production of masks by 39 million units over the next 90 days, according to the Department of Defense.

O&M Halyward and Honeywell both have contracts with the Department of Health and Human Services to provide N95 masks. The Department of Defense claimed that the investment will allow O&M Halyward to fulfill its contract in 12 months and Honeywell to fulfill its own in 10 months.

The Department of Defense expects 3M to convert some of its U.S.-based equipment production into N95 mask production, and to expand material production at plants in Sheboygan Falls, Wisconsin and Aberdeen, Nebraska.

3M also has a major mask factory in Shanghai, China. Chinese authorities have stopped American companies from exporting their goods, preventing 3M from bringing masks it produced in China back to the United States.

The Trump administration has previously attempted to stop 3M from exporting protective gear to foreign countries.

“Ceasing all export of respirators produced in the United States would likely cause other countries to retaliate and do the same, as some have already done,” 3M said at the time. “If that were to occur, the net number of respirators being made available to the United States would actually decrease. That is the opposite of what we and the administration, on behalf of the American people, both seek.”

Matthew Petti is a national security reporter at the National Interest. Follow him on Twitter: @matthew_petti.