WASHINGTON — Defense industry leaders have been preparing to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House later this week in what is expected to be a contentious discussion as concerns grow over the U.S. supply of missiles, according to two people familiar with details of the meeting.
The leaders of roughly seven defense companies are expected to be pressed by the president to find ways to swiftly increase their production of weaponry for the Pentagon, according to these people and one other person familiar with the upcoming meeting. Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg is also expected to attend, two of the people said.
The president has expressed anger to aides and allies over thinning American stockpiles, the people said. Trump is considering whether to restart major combat operations in Iran, which downed a U.S. Army helicopter Tuesday. The crew was rescued and the U.S. launched new attacks in Iran in response.
“We’re going to be attacking them, attacking them very hard,” Trump said Wednesday from the Oval Office. “We hit them hard yesterday, and we’re going to hit them again hard today.”
A White House official said there was no meeting with leaders of defense companies on the president’s schedule “at this time.” It’s also possible it could be rescheduled or canceled.
“America’s military is the most powerful in the world and has everything it needs to execute at the time and place of the President’s choosing,” Sean Parnell, chief Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement. “We have executed multiple successful operations across combatant commands while ensuring the U.S. military possesses a deep arsenal of capabilities to protect our people and our interests.”
The war has laid bare concerns over the Pentagon’s munitions stockpile, as the military burns through missiles and interceptors at a rate that has alarmed some defense officials. Military officials, outside experts and lawmakers are concerned about the U.S. ability to defend itself against other adversaries, though Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has dismissed those concerns.
In March, Trump said in a post online that the U.S. had a “virtually unlimited supply” of weapons.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said the U.S. military had more than enough munitions, ammunition and stockpiles “to serve all of President Trump’s strategic goals and beyond, and Operation Epic Fury has exposed what happens when you mess with the United States.”
“Even still, the President has urged our defense contractors to constantly produce more made-in-America weapons, which are the best in the world. Democrats destroyed our military, but President Trump rebuilt it,” she said in a statement.
One of the people familiar with plans for a meeting this week said they anticipate it is “going to be ugly,” in part because of Trump’s frustrations with the status of the U.S. munitions stockpile.
NBC News reported in May that despite widespread concern about a dwindling missile supply the Pentagon had yet to ink any new, multiyear contracts to purchase more since Trump came into office.
While the Pentagon has entered into “framework agreements” on weaponry, none include any actual contracts to produce new munitions that would replenish the American stockpile, according to officials and defense firm representatives.
The stockpile has been dwindling since the U.S. began providing military aid to Ukraine after Russia invaded in 2022. But the problem has grown more acute in the last year, with the U.S. striking Iran last June in an operation called Midnight Hammer and then the U.S. and Israel-launched war that began Feb. 28, known as Operation Epic Fury.
There are estimates from Capitol Hill officials and other experts that the Pentagon needs an additional $20 billion to begin producing more missiles as part of the effort to replenish U.S. stockpiles to levels comparable to before the U.S. began sending weaponry to Ukraine in 2022.
On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee unveiled a proposed defense spending bill of more than $1 trillion; munitions production is a focus.
The shrinking supply has forced the U.S. to take munitions away from stockpiles in Europe and Asia to feed the demand for more missiles for the war against Iran, NBC News has reported.
While production for missiles is underway, most of it is for contracts that were inked some years ago, according to two other people familiar with the contracts.
Multiple U.S. officials, former officials, lawmakers and others have said that recent military operations have undercut the U.S. readiness.
The Center for Strategic and International Studies conducted a study earlier this year that found that the U.S. is running low on weapons overall. That includes particular concern about long-range precision weapons like Tomahawks, joint air-to-surface missiles, Patriot missiles and terminal high-altitude area defense interceptors.
For example, according to that study, the U.S. had an estimated 3,100 Tomahawk missiles before the war with Iran began and has used about 1,000 or more. CSIS estimates that even if new contracts were signed today, production of new Tomahawks to replenish stockpiles could take more than three years.
