As U.S. stockpiles dwindle, low-cost alternatives to Pentagon’s munitions are still years away

The Washington Times ^ | March 24, 2026 | John T. Seward

[McGruff]

Low-cost alternatives to the multimillion-dollar missiles the U.S. is using in its war against Iran are still years away, key Pentagon officials said Tuesday, leaving the military reliant on high-cost munitions that are increasingly in short supply.

The U.S.-Israel campaign against Iran has burned through complex weapons that cannot be replaced quickly or affordably enough to maintain the Pentagon’s usual stockpiles. Military officials said at a Senate Armed Services Committee briefing that cheaper munitions are on the long-term horizon, but the U.S. industrial base still needs time to scale up to the Defense Department’s increasing needs.

Expanding the American industrial base is critical to refill rocket and missile stockpiles. Even before the campaign against Iran began late last month, arms transfers to Ukraine and Israel dwindled American reserves. Precision strike and air defense stockpiles were drawn down to support those two U.S. allies.

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TOPICS: Business/Economy; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events; War
KEYWORDS: debt; deficit; inflation; oyvey

[Sirius Lee]

key Pentagon officials said Tuesday

Really? Name them. Prove it. Just one even. Who?

[wildcard_redneck]

I am beginning to suspect that the Trump administration will use new, smaller and far less corrupt defense contractors who can actually complete the work like Palentir, SpaceX, etc.

[FreedomPoster]

Go watch a couple of long form interviews with Palmer Lucky of Anduril. I bet he makes Raytheon, LMASC, and the like nervous.

[rdcbn1]

Unfortunately, this is true thanks to the disastrous Biden Administration

We have blown through an amazing percentage of our weapons stockpiles

Especially our critical air defense and missile defense systems and it is going to take a long time to rebuild.

The American people need to remember that the Missile Defense Agency has been aggressively under siege from Democrats intent on destroying any capability of protecting America from nuclear attack by foreign ballistic and cruise missiles.

It started with ridiculing Reagan's Strategic Defense initiative with derisive "Star Wars" and "Ronnie Ray Gun" rhetoric and continuing up until today. The missile defense systems work remarkably despite Democrats constant efforts to kill the programs but we are several generation behind where we could be if the Democrats had not done all they can to kill the MDA.

[central_va]

You can blame Free Traitors for the pathetic state of our industrial base.

[McGruff]

“We’ve got to figure out a way to stop using multimillion-dollar defense ordnance to stop cheap attack vehicles,” said Sen. Rick Scott, Florida Republican.

Mr. Scott pointed to changes in last year’s National Defense Authorization Act, such as longer-term munitions contracts, as part of the solution, but the measure was passed only months before the current Persian Gulf conflict.

“We’ve allowed the Department of War to do longer-term contracts, which allows the contractors to invest more capital,” Mr. Scott said.

[central_va]

We might not have an industrial base but heck yeah TVs are cheap.

[Freedom4US]

I’m surprised they don’t give them away. Keep people “informed”.

[ncalburt]

Gen DEI Austin was busy
driving off all White Officers and enlisted men to bother with
stockpiles . Doubt if he even knew what they were .

[bert]

We have an industrial base making products that people needing really good stuff come to buy.

We don’t make paint brushes but we make complex heat exchangers and pressure vessels and machines that create freshwater from sea water.

You need to get out more. From where you sit, you can’t see America and what it actually does.

[chiller]

Palmer Lucky of Anduril

Who's Anduril ?

A San Diego company can 3-D print drones fast & cheap...surely more applications.

[AppyPappy]

The Radford Arsenal is still in vigorous operation.

[FreedomPoster]

https://www.anduril.com/

They’re standing up a huge factory in Ohio, among other things.

[rdcbn1]

Our defense contractor have problems but much of it stems from the fact that most every major defense program is turned into a political football that is intentionally held hostage by members of congress so they can shake defense contractors down for money.

It's. a scandal how our most expensive defense hardware is produced in the most inefficient and wasteful low rate process so politicians can milk the programs for personal gain.

The American taxpayer pays about a 30-40% premium on most of our defense procurement to keep this grift alive.

President Trump kept the F-35 program alive when it was headed for almost certain outright cancellation cancellation or draconian cuts by direct negotiations with Lockheed that rationalized production and cut congress out of much of the grift.

The price of the F-35 dropped from a proposed $115 million a plane to just under $80 million a plane as a result of President Trump's efforts to rationalize the F-35 procurement process for longer term, more efficient production.

We now have just under 500 F-35 in inventory purchased at a price for the base F-35A that is only about 10-15% higher than that of a current production Block 70 F-16 thanks to President Trump

[Carry_Okie]

Henry Ford, we need you now.

[Libloather]

Make more of these -

[bert]

For the record, so is Holston Ordnance Works.

I recently discussed this with a high school class mate who was a chemist at Holston Ordnance before he retired.

Radford and Holston Ordnance make all the explosives.

Holston ordnance makes high explosives including RDX and derivatives. C4 is derivative of that chemistry

Radford makes high explosives based on the chemistry of nitro glycerin.

[McGruff]

Now you’re talking. Burrrp!

[AppyPappy]

And fireworks. One of our cousins works there. I tried to get my son to apply but he hates the idea of being blown up. Wiring houses is safer.