WASHINGTON – The Pentagon is urging U.S. defense contractors to move faster on weapons production as the military works to rebuild strained munitions stockpiles, including supplies drawn down during the continuing war with Iran.
Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Saturday that the Defense Department is intensifying its push to increase munitions purchases so it can deliver “the weapons our warfighters need at the pace the threat demands.” Parnell confirmed that officials moved over the past week to sharply accelerate the process, while emphasizing that the effort is part of a wider modernization drive that began before the five-month-old conflict.
In a memo obtained by The Washington Post, Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg told defense industry executives Wednesday that they have no more than 21 days to submit plans to “drive significantly faster, more aggressive delivery schedules and/or increased production for critical capabilities.”
“Years-long development cycles are not acceptable,” Feinberg wrote. “We must dramatically accelerate our program schedules and expand our production capacity now.”
The directive follows a period of heavy fighting with Iran that consumed additional U.S. stocks of advanced missile interceptors, further straining inventories that were already reduced and potentially increasing the danger to American forces if combat resumes, according to a new analysis.
Dwindling supplies of Patriot and THAAD interceptors could leave the United States and its Middle East allies with tougher choices about when to use their air defense systems, according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank. The analysis said U.S. forces, for instance, may fire fewer interceptors at incoming Iranian drones and missiles in an effort to conserve defenses, increasing the risk that one could penetrate.
President Donald Trump has pushed back in recent days against public reports suggesting a munitions shortage. In a Thursday post on Truth Social, he said the United States has “massive amounts,” adding that “large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed.”
Parnell said Saturday that Feinberg’s memo calling for a rapid ramp-up in weapons production is “real,” and that it “will inform the fiscal year 2028 budget submitted to Congress for funding, and it is entirely consistent with our ongoing push to rebuild the defense industrial base.”
A defense spending bill is currently stalled in Congress, with lawmakers fuming over Trump’s military action against Iran and resisting the White House request to substantially increase Pentagon spending to $1.5 trillion, up from about $900 billion last year.
The number of Patriot interceptors fell from 2,330 before the war to 1,030 when the April ceasefire took effect, CSIS estimated last month. Following recent fighting, the stockpile is now estimated to be between 759 and 827, a decrease of at least 65% since before the conflict began.
The number of THAAD interceptors fell from 452 before the war to between 232 and 262 at the start of the April ceasefire, CSIS said. The U.S. was able to replenish some of the inventory to between 234 and 278 interceptors. But the stockpile is still at least 38% smaller than it was before the conflict.
