The Pentagon is urging defense companies to double or even quadruple their production rates, focusing on 12 critical weapons, Reuters and the Wall Street Journal reported.
The reason is concerns about low US stockpiles in a potential conflict with China.
The drive to accelerate production of the most in-demand critical weapons came through a series of high-level meetings between Pentagon leaders and senior representatives of several US missile manufacturers. Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg has been playing an unusually active role in the effort, called the Munitions Acceleration Council, calling company executives weekly to discuss the issue, sources said.
The department invited leading missile suppliers to a roundtable in June at the Pentagon to kick off the industry effort. The meeting, attended by Defense Secretary Pete Hegsett and Gen. Dan Kaine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, drew executives from several weapons companies, new entrants such as Anduril Industries, and several suppliers of critical components such as rocket fuel and batteries.
"President Trump and Secretary Hegsett are exploring extraordinary opportunities to expand our military and accelerate munitions production," Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said. "This effort is a collaboration between defense industry leaders and senior Pentagon officials."
Some people involved in the effort both inside and outside the government worry, however, that the government's goals are unrealistic. It could take two years to fully assemble individual missiles. It could also take months and hundreds of millions of dollars to test weapons from new suppliers and determine they are safe and reliable enough to be used by U.S. service members.
There are also questions about the funding needed to speed up production. The Trump administration's "Big Beautiful Bill" signed into law in July provided an additional $25 billion in five-year funding for munitions. But analysts say it would cost tens of billions more to hit the Pentagon's aggressive targets.