The US defense department is looking to speed up missile production to address what it sees as a low stockpile of weapons critical for a future potential conflict with China, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Missile suppliers are being pushed to double, even quadruple production at breakneck schedule, through regular high-level meetings between senior executives at the companies and Pentagon officials.
The push is being made via the Munitions Acceleration Council, with weekly calls with some executives, sources told WSJ.
The council’s efforts began with a meeting in June attended by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine, and executives from companies.
“President Trump and Secretary Hegseth are exploring extraordinary avenues to expand our military might and accelerate the production of munitions. This effort has been a collaboration between defense industry leaders and senior Pentagon officials,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said on the efforts.
However, the WSJ report cites concerns around the technical feasibility and costs involved around such an aggressive ramp-up in production.
Defense contractors including Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) and Raytheon (NYSE:RTX) have said they have expanded factory floors, added workers and raised spare-parts inventories to prepare for a demand surge.
However, RTX CEO Christopher Calio also cautioned for more money and commitments for munitions from the Pentagon, in a July 3 letter seen by WSJ.
The new Munitions Acceleration Council is focused on 12 weapons seen as critical for a possible conflict with Chin, including Patriot interceptors, Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles, the Standard Missile-6, Precision Strike Missiles and Joint Air-Surface Standoff Missiles.
The Pentagon is looking for Patriot missiles to be delivered at nearly four times the current annual production rate, according to unnamed sources. Lockheed has said it is exploring investments into Patriot missile production.
Boeing (NYSE:BA) too is looking to further boost production of seeker missiles, while Northrop Grumman (NYSE:NOC) has said it “invested ahead of the need with more than $1 billion across solid rocket motor production facilities,” to boost output nearly twofold in four years.