“Manufactured story” that U.S. faces munitions stockpile shortage
Washington — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Sunday dismissed the notion that the United States faces a crisis regarding its ammunition stockpile, but said earlier this year that replenishing stockpiles could take “months and years.”
“This is a made-up story that the media wants to sell, and the bottom line is that our stock is great and going from strength to strength,” Hegseth said on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
Weeks after a ceasefire in the war with Iran began, Hegseth testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee on the Pentagon’s $1.5 trillion budget request. At the hearing on April 30, Hegseth predicted that it could take “months and years” to replenish stocks because the Iran war has been going on for months. Hegseth described the timeline as “fast” and noted that the speed would depend on the weapon system.
While Hegseth claimed that the production rate would increase by saying “we are building new facilities in real time” at that time, he also touched upon the levels of depleted ammunition left over from the Biden administration.
“I guessed some ammunition took more time than others,” Hegseth said Sunday when pressed by Margaret Brennan about his previous comments.
“We have a lot of them,” he added.
The Ministry of Defense has not disclosed how many ammunition has been used so far in the Iran war.
During Lockheed Martin’s earnings call in April, the defense contractor said it would take three to four years to increase Patriot missile production from the current level of 650 to 2,000 per year.
“We are building more than ever before,” Hegseth said. “The Biden administration gave Ukraine hundreds of billions of dollars, and so President Trump had to refill, and he did it in real time, and so did we.”
Hegseth’s comments came after Brennan asked him about Ukrainian President Volodymy Zelenskyy’s request to produce Patriot missiles.
“No one produces better or more ammunition than the United States, and we are open to joint production wherever possible,” Hegseth said. “And through this administration, we are strengthening our arsenal of freedom; we are building more, we are building faster, we are clearing the way for the Pentagon, we are breaking up the Pentagon bureaucracy and pushing industry to move faster.”
“Our stocks are strong and will get stronger in the future,” he added.
District officials told CBS News: In March, it was revealed that Arab states in the Gulf were running out of interceptors to stop Missiles fired by Iran. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine pushed back on that assessment at the time, saying there was “sufficient precision munitions for the mission at hand, both offensively and defensively.”
Hegseth’s testimony in April came in response to questioning from Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona. Kelly also appeared on “Face the Nation” Sunday and quoted the statement, saying “of course we have an ammunition problem.”
“I think it’s widely understood that when you attack over 10,000 targets from the air with cruise missiles, ballistic missiles and bombs dropped from aircraft, you use a lot of munitions and we don’t have an endless supply of that kind of thing,” Kelly said. he said. “So we’re in a situation right now where we have to be incredibly careful.”
