The Pentagon is shifting away from decades of year-to-year weapons buying and toward long-term production contracts, a move designed to rebuild missile stockpiles that have been drained by the ongoing conflict in the Middle East. The change follows warnings from allies and military commanders that the United States does not currently have enough proven hardware to sustain a prolonged fight.
The strain on the arsenal became visible during the war in Iran, which placed sustained demand on precision munitions and air defense interceptors. Gulf partner nations have told U.S. officials their interceptor stocks are running dangerously low, and the Pentagon has pulled THAAD and Patriot batteries out of South Korea to cover the gap. More than half of some U.S. weapons stockpiles have been used in the conflict, raising concerns about preparedness for a potential confrontation with China.
Military leaders say the problem is not the capability of American systems, which continue to perform well in battle, but the depth of supply. For years, manufacturers faced uncertain demand as procurement requests shifted with each budget cycle, which withered production capacity. The result is that troops and commanders now have to make difficult decisions about where scarce weapons are allocated.
Recent contract announcements signal a deliberate effort to fix that. The Navy has awarded a $22.9 billion, seven-year contract to ramp up Tomahawk cruise missile production from roughly 60 a year to more than 1,000. The multiyear commitment gives industry the certainty needed to hire workers, expand facilities, and lock in suppliers around real, sustained demand rather than reacting to it annually.
That deal is part of a broader trend. Since January, the Pentagon has signed long-term framework agreements with RTX and Lockheed Martin covering seven major weapons systems, all built on the same seven-year model. Together, these agreements are expected to push AMRAAM production to 1,900 units a year, SM-6 to more than 500, PAC-3 interceptors from 600 to 2,000, and THAAD from 96 to 400.
The message behind the numbers is straightforward: the Pentagon wants stockpile depth built in permanently, not scrambled together the next time a war breaks out. The approach marks a departure from the way the military has operated for decades, treating the defense industrial base like a peacetime operation and coasting on stockpiles already built.
Still, the new contracts are only a first step. Full production capacity will take time to arrive, and Congress must approve continued appropriations to fund the agreements through completion. The military also continues to work against an outdated procurement process that limits how fast new capabilities can reach the warfighter. The United States still averages more than 12 years to move a major weapons program from concept to fielding.
Moving forward, the Pentagon and Congress should treat sustained, elevated defense investment as the standing cost of this era, not a wartime exception that ends when the current conflict does. The industrial base that wins the next fight is the one built now, deliberately, before it is needed.