President Trump and senior Pentagon officials sought to solve the country\u2019s munitions shortage by approaching the problem from two directions in meetings this week.<\/p>\n
They urged defense companies to speed up production of depleted weapons systems. And they pushed lawmakers to approve additional money to pay for the war against Iran, which helped to deplete munitions.<\/p>\n
It is likely to be an uphill battle.<\/p>\n
In a meeting at the White House on Wednesday, defense companies told Mr. Trump that they wanted more money to fund expanding production, according to two officials with knowledge of the meeting.<\/p>\n
Mr. Trump, one of the officials said, was more conciliatory than he has been in past meetings with the companies and told them that his administration was working to secure more funding. But his request for $70 billion to pay for the war is expected to face stiff opposition in Congress. The proposal needs bipartisan support in the Senate to advance, and nearly all Democrats have said they will not vote to fund a conflict they oppose.<\/p>\n
At stake for the Pentagon is not necessarily its ability to continue the fight against Iran. Officials from the military\u2019s Central Command insisted in interviews this week that they have everything they need should the president decide to restart hostilities. But the Pentagon\u2019s ability to prosecute future wars \u2014 particularly a so-called great-power war against China, for instance \u2014 could be hobbled by a munitions shortage that might take years to reverse.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe United States has enough munitions for any plausible scenario in the Iran war, but the depleted inventories have created a window of vulnerability for a potential Western Pacific conflict,\u201d the Center for Strategic and International Studies said last month. \u201cThe time needed to rebuild those inventories has thus become a major concern.\u201d<\/p>\n
Adding to the Pentagon\u2019s challenges is that some lawmakers in both parties are wary of the agreement that Mr. Trump struck with Iran to end the war and were mad that the president and the defense secretary started the war in the first place.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor months, the administration has failed to answer basic questions about its aims and justification for the Iran war and failed to provide the most basic information about its costs,\u201d said Senator Patty Murray of Washington, the top Democrat on the Appropriations Committee.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis president is telling the American people there\u2019s no money for health care, housing or child care \u2014 but there should be endless taxpayer dollars to fund wars they don\u2019t support,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n
The Pentagon\u2019s insistence that the military already has everything it needs has further complicated its request for more money.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn exchange for longer-term orders, defense contractors are now investing their own private capital in new manufacturing plants and assembly lines \u2014 putting hundreds of thousands of Americans to work and saving our department tens of billions,\u201d Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in an essay posted on Tuesday<\/a> on the Pentagon\u2019s website.<\/p>\n \u201cOur warfighters will get the weapons, platforms and technology they need ahead of schedule \u2014 tomorrow\u2019s weapons today, not yesterday\u2019s weapons tomorrow,\u201d he wrote. \u201cOur newest programs are now ahead of schedule and under budget, and we\u2019ve got legacy programs moving years faster.\u201d<\/p>\n In actuality, the war against Iran drained the Pentagon\u2019s arsenal. The United States burned through around 1,100 long-range stealth cruise missiles built for a war with China, close to the total number remaining in the U.S. stockpile. The military has fired more than 1,000 Tomahawk cruise missiles<\/a>, roughly 10 times the number it buys each year.<\/p>\n The Pentagon used more than 1,200 Patriot interceptor missiles<\/a> in the war, at more than $4 million apiece, and more than 1,000 Precision Strike and ATACMS<\/a> ground-based missiles, leaving inventories worrisomely low, according to internal Defense Department estimates and congressional officials.<\/p>\n To help address the shortages, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved a bill last week that could bar some defense contractors from making stock buybacks or paying dividends to shareholders unless they first get approval from the Pentagon. The measure, if it passes, would be an extension of an executive order Mr. Trump issued in January.<\/p>\n Defense officials have long complained that companies prioritize paying dividends to shareholders over investing in new factories and equipment that can increase weapons production.<\/p>\n At Wednesday\u2019s meeting with the defense manufacturers, Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg did most of the talking, according to people briefed on the conversations. He echoed Pentagon talking points that the defense companies should be moving faster. But the officials said the meeting was not confrontational, and defense companies said they would work to speed up production.<\/p>\n So far, there have been many announcements about plans to expand production, but little actual production expansion, industry officials say.<\/p>\n On Feb. 4 \u2014 weeks before the United States and Israel attacked Iran \u2014 Raytheon said it would increase production of Tomahawk missiles to 1,000 per year, up from 90.<\/p>\n But first, Raytheon needed to find additional suppliers of the airframes used in the missile bodies. In August, Raytheon entered a partnership with Divergent, a start-up in Torrance, Calif., that uses industrial 3-D printers to make metal parts.<\/p>\n Last week, Divergent announced that it would open a new production facility where it plans to make airframes for Raytheon next year, along with parts for other customers.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s an all-hands-on-deck moment,\u201d said Lukas Czinger, Divergent\u2019s chief executive. <\/p>\n But the company is still undergoing the arduous process of certifying the Raytheon airframe with several rounds of tests, a task that can take years.<\/p>\n The difficulty of ramping up the production of munitions was a key topic at the Reindustrialize Summit last week in Detroit, as top Trump administration officials rubbed shoulders with manufacturers and Silicon Valley investors intent on rebuilding the U.S. industrial base.<\/p>\n In a keynote address, Tara Murphy Dougherty, the chief executive of Air, a defense software company formerly known as Govini, said the United States was facing \u201ca dangerous chasm between what the warfighter needs and what the national security enterprise can deliver.\u201d<\/p>\n She blamed a number of issues, including fragmented systems and archaic procurement processes, for the long delays in starting new weapons programs and repairing equipment that is already in use.<\/p>\n Pentagon officials have been pushing defense contractors for more than a year to look for nontraditional solutions, including working with the auto industry to leverage its experience in mass production.<\/p>\n