White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the U.S. military had more than enough munitions, ammunition and stockpiles “to serve all of President Trump’s strategic goals and beyond, and Operation Epic Fury has exposed what happens when you mess with the United States.”
“Even still, the President has urged our defense contractors to constantly produce more made-in-America weapons, which are the best in the world. Democrats destroyed our military, but President Trump rebuilt it,” she said.
One of the people familiar with plans for a meeting this week said they anticipate it is “going to be ugly,” in part because of Trump’s frustrations with the status of the U.S. munitions stockpile.
NBC News reported in May that despite widespread concern about a dwindling missile supply the Pentagon had yet to ink any new, multiyear contracts to purchase more since Trump came into office.
While the Pentagon has entered into “framework agreements” on weaponry, none include any actual contracts to produce new munitions that would replenish the American stockpile, according to officials and defense firm representatives.
The stockpile has been dwindling since the U.S. began providing military aid to Ukraine after Russia invaded in 2022. But the problem has grown more acute in the last year, with the U.S. striking Iran last June in an operation called Midnight Hammer and then the U.S. and Israel-launched war that began Feb. 28, known as Operation Epic Fury.
There are estimates from Capitol Hill officials and other experts that the Pentagon needs an additional $20 billion to begin producing more missiles as part of the effort to replenish U.S. stockpiles to levels comparable to before the U.S. began sending weaponry to Ukraine in 2022.
On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee unveiled a proposed defense spending bill of more than $1 trillion; munitions production is a focus.
The shrinking supply has forced the U.S. to take munitions away from stockpiles in Europe and Asia to feed the demand for more missiles for the war against Iran, NBC News has reported.
While production for missiles is underway, most of it is for contracts that were inked some years ago, according to two other people familiar with the contracts.
Multiple U.S. officials, former officials, lawmakers and others have said that recent military operations have undercut the U.S. readiness.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies conducted a study earlier this year that found that the U.S. is running low on weapons overall. That includes particular concern about long-range precision weapons like Tomahawks, joint air-to-surface missiles, Patriot missiles, and terminal high-altitude area defense interceptors.
For example, according to that study, the U.S. had an estimated 3,100 Tomahawk missiles before the war with Iran began and has used about 1,000 or more. CSIS estimates that even if new contracts were signed today, production of new Tomahawks to replenish stockpiles could take more than three years.
