Pentagon urges defence firms to speed up weapons production amid depleted stocks

The Pentagon is urging US defence companies to accelerate weapons production to replenish its reduced stockpile of munitions, including weapons used during the ongoing war with Iran.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said Saturday (8 August) that the department is actively working to increase munitions purchases to provide "the weapons our warfighters need at the pace the threat demands." He confirmed that the Pentagon has taken steps over the past week to significantly speed up the process, but said the effort is part of a broader military modernisation drive that began before the five-month-old conflict.

Deputy Defence Secretary Steve Feinberg sent a memo to defence industry leaders on Wednesday giving them no more than 21 days to submit plans to "drive significantly faster, more aggressive delivery schedules and/or increased production for critical capabilities," according to a memo obtained by The Washington Post.

"Years-long development cycles are not acceptable," Feinberg wrote. "We must dramatically accelerate our programme schedules and expand our production capacity now."

The memo comes amid concerns that recent fighting with Iran has further depleted the US military's already reduced stockpiles of advanced missile interceptors, potentially leaving American troops more vulnerable if hostilities resume, according to a new analysis.

Reduced inventories of Patriot and THAAD interceptors could force the US and its Middle Eastern allies to take greater risks in conserving those air-defence systems, according to an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank.

For instance, US forces could fire fewer interceptors at incoming Iranian drones and missiles, increasing the possibility that some could get through, the analysis said.

President Donald Trump has in recent days pushed back against reports of a US munitions shortage. In a post on Truth Social on Thursday (6 August), he said the US has "massive amounts" of weapons and added that "large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the US as needed."

Parnell on Saturday confirmed that Feinberg's memo calling for a rapid increase in weapons production is "real". He said the initiative "will inform the fiscal year 2028 budget submitted to Congress for funding" and is fully in line with the Pentagon's ongoing effort to rebuild the US defence industrial base.

A defence spending bill remains stalled in Congress, where lawmakers have expressed anger over Trump's military action against Iran and opposition to the White House request to sharply increase Pentagon spending to $1.5 trillion, 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, according to a CSIS estimate released last month.

Following the latest fighting, the stockpile is now estimated at between 759 and 827 interceptors, representing a decline of at least 65% from the level before the conflict began.

The number of THAAD interceptors declined from 452 before the war to between 232 and 262 at the beginning of the April ceasefire, CSIS said.

The US was able to replenish some of its THAAD inventory, bringing the estimated stockpile to between 234 and 278 interceptors. However, the stockpile remains at least 38% below its pre-conflict level.