Gen. Dan Caine pleads with defense contractors to build weapons faster

CARLISLE, Pa.— Gen.

Dan Caine, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, pleaded with defense contractors to “go faster” as fears grow that the country’s stockpile of weapons is dangerously low after a series of attacks on Iran.“What I need you to know — and I know this is simple for me to say but hard to do — but go faster, please, go faster, think bolder,” he told the Pennsylvania Defense and Innovation Summit.“We all need to deliver quality weapons, delivered on time with shortage of lead times and lower costs,” he said.Defense contractors gathered at the US Army War College to discuss the future of warfare and hear from government officials about the needs of the American military.The message from Caine and other Pentagon officials was about the changing nature of war.Technology like drones can be built quickly in massive numbers, they warned, shifting the strength of weapons to quantity over quality.Follow The Post’s live coverage of President Trump and national politics for the latest news and analysis“Quantity can be built, networked and employed faster than it could before.

We see this emerging all over the world right now in today’s battlefield,” Caine said.“The new reality of modern warfare, my friends, is competition at a speed and velocity that we haven’t planned for,” he warned.Caine’s message came as the US launched more strikes against Iran in the lead-up to the pending blockade on Iranian ports.The chairman moved up his scheduled speech time from 4 pm to 11 am, making a quick swing through the state, before returning to Washington.

Caine jokingly thanked the local police for not stopping his motorcade “which was going about 100 miles per hour.”Tehran is a good example of the new warfare that the officials described.Iran builds drones quickly and cheaply in underground facilities using commercial components.

It then relies on quantity, using thousands in an air attack to overwhelm expensive, multi-million-d...