WSJ: Pentagon to increase missile production in case of war with China

The Pentagon is urging its missile suppliers to double or even quadruple production rates over concerns that weapons stockpiles are too small for a potential conflict with China.

This is reported by The Wall Street Journal, citing sources.

According to the publicationʼs sources, the initiative, called the "Ammunition Production Acceleration Council" ,was discussed by Pentagon leadership and representatives of American missile manufacturers at a series of meetings.

The new initiative focuses on 12 types of weapons. The list includes:

• missiles for Patriot;
• long-range anti-ship missiles;
• Standard Missile-6 missiles;
• Precision Strike missiles;
• Joint Air-Surface Standoff missiles.

At the same time, they note that Patriot is a special priority.

According to sources, in June the US Department of Defense invited leading missile suppliers to a roundtable meeting. The meeting was attended by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Dan Kaine.

Also present were arms company executives, new market entrants, including Anduril Industries, and several suppliers of rocket fuel and batteries.

There, weapons manufacturers were asked to describe in detail how they could increase production by 2.5 times, attract new private capital, and license their technology to third-party manufacturers.

However, some people involved in this work both inside and outside the government fear that the goals are unrealistic.

According to the WSJ, the complete assembly of a single missile could take two years, and testing and certifying weapons from new suppliers would require several months and hundreds of millions of dollars.

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