The US military must RACE to rebuild its supply of munitions

The United States produces the most technologically advanced weapons in the world, but that’s not enough to deter and win future conflicts.The wars in Ukraine and the Middle East are demonstrating once again that the quantity of munitions matters at least as much as their quality.Years of insufficient defense budgets severely eroded the US defense industry’s capacity and left our military with arsenals that are dangerously small and insufficient to address growing threats.Thankfully, the Pentagon now recognizes this reality and is attempting to quickly procure large quantities of less expensive munitions.The question is whether Congress will provide timely and sufficient appropriations this year to meet the urgent need for an adequate supply of munitions for America’s men and women in uniform.Consider: Per a report in April, the military fired over 1,000 ship- and submarine-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles since the war with Iran started in February.For perspective, Pentagon documents indicate it bought only 38 of these missiles in Fiscal Year 2025.Similarly, US forces expended over 1,100 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile-Extended Range cruise missiles with only roughly 1,500 remaining in Pentagon stocks at the end of April, according to another report.Those numbers are sobering, especially considering that America’s authoritarian adversaries are engaged in broad, increasingly consequential cooperation, as we detail with our colleague Elaine Dezenski in our new book, “Axis of Aggressors: Countering the Cooperation of China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.”Last year, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen.Dan Caine warned Congress that “China, Russia, Iran and North Korea are pursuing unprecedented levels of cooperation.” He reiterated those concerns Tuesday to the Senate Appropriations Committee.If America lacks sufficient munitions for a conflict of a few months against Iran, why do we think we are prepared for a war that could last much longer again...