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Posted on 07/14/2026 4:38:07 PM PDT by Red6
en. Mark Kelly, a retired Navy Captain and former astronaut, earned the ire of the Pentagon last week for raising concerns over U.S. weapons stockpiles that have been depleted by the Iran War.
Citing a Department of Defense (DOD) briefing he had received, Kelly told CBS’s “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan it could take “years” to replenish stockpiles of Tomahawks, Patriots, and other long-range munitions that have been deployed in the U.S. and Israel’s attack on Iran—a reality that could leave the U.S. vulnerable around the world.
Those comments prompted Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to launch an investigation into Sen. Kelly's remarks, accusing him of leaking classified information.
But Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) Defense and Security, says Kelly is not wrong about these weapons shortages.
(Excerpt) Read more at time.com ...
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Then the experts chime in.
Then the MSM take the story and spin it in some way to support their agenda.
They should keep this article, archive it, and in the next conflict change out names and dates and run it again. Unless of course there is a Democrat President, then you have to give it all a more positive spin.
--
One thing the US does very well. Produce massive amounts of military munitions, hardware, and leverage technology.
Ever since the Civil War (a lesson learned the hard way) we have had a very good grasp on how to manage the war industrial base, and I would argue, WWII with our arms deliveries to the UK, Russia, China, in addition to our own military and of course a nuke, probably ended the war the way it did.
The whole "arsenal of democracy" saying isn't some cheesy line, it's really true, i.e. Ukraine (massive), then Israel, Venezuela (almost insignificant) and now Iran. And I bet we're doing this while NOT depleting out regional stockpiles for contingencies in the Pacific rim...
The US has multiple suppliers for most things, and one of the reasons WHY some of the costs are as high as they are. You don't want "lean" and "Just In Time," cheap foreign made components. We INTENTIONALLY build the supply chains and manufacturing with HUGE ramp up capacities in case we need them.
For example, a system like Blue Force Tracker (just a random example from the past) will have two suppliers, Litton and Parvant. Each of these companies before the war in 2003 were pumping out only a fraction of their actual capacity and when we needed, they could literally supply THOUSANDS of systems in short notice.
Another example, "You go to war with the Army you have, not you wish you had," (Rumsfeld and a true statement), but that said, we needed more armored vehicles for Iraq and Afghanistan. We built and fielded for Iraq ALONE >25,000 up-armored HMMWVs in a matter of a 1.5 years. This doesn't include a LONG list of other armored vehicles we fielded (Rino's, MRAPS, etc).
The point being, we're smart enough to build into our war manufacturing redundancy, huge capacities to ramp up production, and keep things nationally sourced (The reasons why it's not always so cheap - which is the flip side).
We have massive depots (>12 of them), floating depots we can move around, depots we share with allies, with mind boggling amounts of ammunition, explosives, bombs, missiles, you name it. We have allies we can tap into for war manufacturing. We have mothballed equipment that we can dust off and use, often repurpose (such as make an M60 a drone tank).
https://preview.redd.it/weve-got-plenty-of-old-tanks-too-sierra-army-depot-v0-4lremuit8io91.jpg?width=1080&crop=smart&auto=webp&s=51a3385a3a0cc1861c00be88d8f5e0b1a6af8cbc
https://img.atlasobscura.com/ZesV8_Kbp27V-Zn0ELuztj44FRyXPrUMk1OUP2eTAP8/rt:fit/w:1200/q:80/sm:1/scp:1/ar:1/aHR0cHM6Ly9hdGxh/cy1kZXYuczMuYW1h/em9uYXdzLmNvbS91/cGxvYWRzL3BsYWNl/X2ltYWdlcy9hYjY2/MjBjMmFmYjQ1MTc2/OTFfU2NyZWVuIFNo/b3QgMjAxNy0wNS0z/MCBhdCA4LjE0LjMy/IFBNLnBuZw.webp
We can wage entire wars without depleting our war stock. We have programs where we give military hardware to others, they get to use it, and of course they maintain and even modernize it. But in crisis we get to borrow it back from them, if they don't need it...
If there is one thing we get right, that's the economics of war.
This isn't a story that excites me since all the numbers we are fed are speculative in nature: https://www.csis.org/analysis/last-rounds-status-key-munitions-iran-war-ceasefire These numbers are just guesses. They are about as reliable as Russian casualty reports as per Ukraine.
Mark Kelly shooting off his mouth again
Correct. Every time. It’s 2026. The supply is always being manufactured.
Time. Didn’t realize they were still around.
““The production rate will increase, but that takes three, four years before production meets demand,” he tells TIME.”
good think it didn’t take this long to ramp up production for WWII, or we would have lost the war before the weapons came on line ...
“...Mark Kelly, a retired Navy Captain and former astronaut,
earned the ire of the Pentagon last week for raising concerns
over U.S. weapons stockpiles that have been depleted by the
Iran War...Citing a Department of Defense (DOD) briefing
he had received...”
-
Why is Mark Kelley receiving Defense briefings?
Time … for Fake News.
No thanks.
“due to the Iran war” and DEFINITELY NOT Ukraine and NO NEVER leaving $$$$$ in small and large arms for the Taliban for free.
Lying scum.
The only thing the US is short of is honest journalism....
Loose lips encouraging our enemies to sink ships.
He’s in the Senate it can’t be denied.
I appreciate your detailed, and I think accurate, comments. Even if the US is aces at producing military equipment, it is harmful for idiots to channel the Little Red Hen, telling the world we are low on high tech materiale and thus vulnerable. It doesn’t have to be true to invite trouble.
catnipman wrote: “good think it didn’t take this long to ramp up production for WWII, or we would have lost the war before the weapons came on line ...”
We weren’t building missiles and complicated electronics for WWII.
Same old bullcrap story that has been raised by dhicken-littles and idiots since the Revolutionary War...
The end is near!
The sky is falling!
Sure, shortages can, and do, occur, but the U.S. has always turned on the switch and resolved the issue with minimal effort...
I remember (I was 8 years old) when those slant-eyed bastards sank all our battleships, and Americans showed what being “American” actually means...
BLOAT.....
It was pretty obvious when we started bragging about having infinite ammo but had to keep asking for cease fires.
The longer this thing goes on, the worse it gets.
The United States is the world largest exporter of military arms...
The Pentagon publicly stated it wants $80-200 billion tax dollars to cover costs of the Iranian war including “Munitions Replenishment.”
All this Iranian “peace and prosperity” comes at a steep price for US taxpayers.
The US and Israeli estimated 10,000 bombing sorties rapidly exhausted valuable, high-end US weapon stockpiles, and $billions of tax dollars are required to restock the US arsenal for other global threats that might endanger American families.
The Pentagon has critically depleted US stockpiles of key precision-guided missiles and interceptors to defend American families due to sustained Mideast conflicts.
Replenishing US military arsenals is expected to take 1-6 years. The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) highlight the depletion levels of critical US munitions.
<>Precision Strike Missiles (PrSM): At least 45% of the stockpile has been used.
<>THAAD Interceptors: At least 50% of the inventory is depleted.
<>Patriot Air Defense: Nearly 50% of the stockpile has been expended.
<>Tomahawk Missiles: Roughly 30% of the arsenal has been utilized.
Defense analysts note that ramping up arms manufacturing faces structural bottlenecks, including long lead times for specialized materials, workforce constraints, and supply chain issues.
Even with expanded capacity, it will take major defense contractors—such as Lockheed Martin and RTX—several years to rebuild pre-war inventory levels earmarked to protect American families.
Homeland and Global Defense: Munition shortages have forced the Pentagon to carefully weigh deployments. For example, interceptors and air defense systems originally stationed in Asia to deter regional threats have been diverted.
Near-Term Vulnerability: The depletion of long-range capabilities poses a potential risk should a conflict arise in another theater, such as the Indo-Pacific or other theaters of aggression that endanger American families.
Still a disgrace to the uniform and ass-tro-naught jumper.
There used to be Aberdeen proving grounds. Right now it’s called Iran. New stuff tested in combat conditions. Wanna know if it works? Drop a big one down an elevator shaft. Damn, that blew up real good. What else we got that needs looked at?
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