Pentagon pushing defense contractors to speed up weapons production

Defense Pentagon pushing defense contractors to speed up weapons production Comments: by Filip Timotija - 08/10/26 9:57 AM ET Comments: Link copied by Filip Timotija - 08/10/26 9:57 AM ET Comments: Link copied

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The Pentagon is pushing defense contractors to speed up their production and delivery of weapons amid concerns about the U.S. military’s dwindling munition stockpiles, which have deepened since the start of the war with Iran.

Pentagon’s Deputy Secretary Steve Feinberg wrote to defense firms in a Wednesday memo that they have up to three weeks to send over plans to “drive significantly faster, more aggressive delivery schedules and/or increased production for critical capabilities,” the department’s chief spokesperson, Sean Parnell, confirmed in a statement to The Hill.

“Deputy Secretary Feinberg is a generational leader in that effort, driving the hard work of fixing our broken, antiquated and immensely complex acquisitions system so we can actually produce the weapons our warfighters need at the pace the threat demands,” Parnell said. “Working directly with industry leaders to accelerate production is not new. It has been the clear intent of the President and this Secretary from the start.”

“Years-long development cycles are not acceptable,” Feinberg wrote in a memo that was first reported by The Washington Post. “We must dramatically accelerate our program schedules and expand our production capacity now.”

Feinberg’s memo comes as the U.S. military arsenal of premier offensive and defensive weapons has been depleted since the conflict with Iran began in late February. The U.S. has expanded nearly all of its Army tactical missile systems and precision strike missiles, constraining President Trump in greenlighting major combat operations against Iran.

The dwindling quantity of munitions is also undermining the commander in chief’s leverage with Iran amid diplomatic talks to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, The Hill reported on Monday.

Ari Cicurel, the associate director of foreign policy at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America, said Tehran seeing the Trump administration’s reluctance to escalate militarily “gives it leverage at the negotiating table, and Beijing draws the same lesson about how long Washington could sustain a fight over Taiwan.”

“Years of procrastination across multiple administrations of both parties left U.S. magazines too shallow before the war and closing the gap now demands sustained multiyear appropriations and expanded production capacity,” Cicurel said.

The U.S. military has used up more than half of its Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile arsenal, going from around 450 before the war to between 234 and 278 THAADs as of late July, according to estimates from the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

Trump has pushed back against recent reports of weapons shortages, writing on Truth Social that the U.S. military has “massive amounts” and that “large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed.”

Parnell said Feinberg’s memo 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.”

“The fiscal year 2027 budget currently being considered on Capitol Hill could supercharge this effort today,” Parnell said.