significantly drained much of the U.S. military\u2019s global supply<\/a> of munitions, as the Pentagon rushes bombs, missiles and other hardware to the Middle East from commands in Asia and Europe, leaving them less ready to confront potential adversaries. And it has forced the United States to hunt for ways to increase production, Trump administration and congressional officials say.<\/p>\n\u201cIf we\u2019re running low after a few weeks of fighting Iran, we\u2019re nowhere near where we need to be for Russia and China,\u201d said Todd Harrison, a defense budget expert at the American Enterprise Institute. \u201cWe\u2019ve never built up our stockpile of munitions to what they need to be for war plans, especially if you\u2019re thinking about being able to fight a major war.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defense officials said that munitions stockpiles were already low because of the war in Ukraine and Operation Midnight Hammer, the U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear sites last year.<\/p>\n
The Pentagon received $825 billion from Congress last year, plus $150 billion in supplemental funding. But there is no solid prediction for what Congress will do this year with the Trump administration\u2019s requested $1.45 trillion for defense.<\/p>\n
At the moment, the Pentagon is putting American needs first. Last Monday, Mr. Hegseth told his Estonian counterpart that he was suspending delivery of six units of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARs, that Estonia, a small but frontline nation in NATO\u2019s standoff with Russia, had contracted to purchase from the United States. Estonian officials said the delay, which would probably extend at least several months, was caused by the war in Iran.<\/p>\n
U.S. officials have told several other European and Asian countries essentially the same, according to an American official and a European official. Reuters earlier reported the message.<\/p>\n
The rapid depletion of weapons \u201cdoes create risk in future conflict scenarios,\u201d said Jerry McGinn, a defense industry expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. \u201cWe\u2019ve done a lot of war games on the Taiwan Strait, and in all of those games, we run out of key munitions in a couple of weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given the Pentagon\u2019s munitions shortfall, a big question this week was how Mr. Hegseth would interact with congressional lawmakers charged with scrutinizing his funding request. Would he strike a conciliatory tone in an effort to try to help the Pentagon get the additional money? Or would he be combative?<\/p>\n
His opening remarks quickly answered that question.<\/p>\n
The $1.5 trillion budget would ensure that the United States \u201ccontinues to maintain the world\u2019s most powerful and capable military as we grapple with a complex threat environment,\u201d Mr. Hegseth said.<\/p>\n
But he went on to say that his critics in Congress were a bigger problem for the United States in the Iran war than Iran itself.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe biggest challenge, the biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless, feckless and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,\u201d Mr. Hegseth told the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
And that was just the beginning.<\/p>\n
Through nearly six hours of the contentious hearing, the defense secretary became so belligerent that Representative Mike D. Rogers, the Alabama Republican who leads the committee, gently admonished him to show more respect. \u201cOnce I recognize a member, they have control of that five minutes,\u201d he told Mr. Hegseth. \u201cThe witness has to recognize it\u2019s their time.\u201d<\/p>\n
The contentiousness of the hearing did not bode well for the Pentagon request for more money for munitions, congressional staffers and some defense officials acknowledged on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Representative Austin Scott, Republican of Georgia, appeared to sum up the situation the Pentagon was in with Mr. Hegseth on Wednesday. Midway through the hearing, after Mr. Hegseth had castigated a number of lawmakers, Mr. Scott advised caution.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes 218 votes to get something across the floor of the House of Representatives,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to lose some Republican votes, and we\u2019re going to have to have some Dem votes to do the things that we have to do to fund the Department of Defense.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I just would encourage everybody to keep that in mind,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, before the Senate Armed Services Committee, Mr. Hegseth doubled down. \u201cI\u2019ll say it again today: The biggest adversary we face at this point are the reckless naysayers and defeatist words of congressional Democrats and some Republicans,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Defense contractors have been watching warily. In an earnings call last week, Lockheed Martin officials indicated that the defense contractor would wait until the Pentagon secured funding before moving forward to expand production, according to several people who were on the call.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are answering the nation\u2019s call with urgency and partnering with the Department of War to accelerate production of critical munitions faster than ever before,\u201d Jalen Drummond, vice president of corporate affairs and international communications at Lockheed, said in a statement. \u201cOur active and ongoing investments in our facilities, workforce and supply chain ensure we can deliver at scale and with speed. With the right tools, proven processes and skilled employees in place, we are well positioned to deliver a record number of munitions in support of the warfighter and our allies.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For months, President Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth have celebrated tentative agreements with defense companies to expand…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":217109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[36284,35552,15019,1452,3278,4471,85610,85611,33636,9,11,10,4472,7810,85259,81267,81740,1069,5251,1876],"class_list":["post-217108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-arms-trade","tag-defense-contracts","tag-defense-department","tag-donald-j","tag-federal-budget-us","tag-hegseth","tag-house-committee-on-armed-services","tag-lockheed-martin-corporation","tag-missiles-and-missile-defense-systems","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-pete","tag-production","tag-senate-committee-on-armed-services","tag-shortages","tag-stockpiling","tag-trump","tag-united-states-defense-and-military-forces","tag-united-states-politics-and-government"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}