The White House said it wants the Pentagon to ramp up production of munitions in a bid to offset potential national security concerns because of supply chain bottlenecks, coming days after the Trump administration earlier this week announced an agreement to end the war with Iran.
A presidential determination said “conditions exist” in the U.S. military’s munitions industrial base that could create a threat to national defense preparedness, saying the Department of War should increase weapons and munitions production.
The presidential determination issued by the White House was written on June 11, filed on June 16, and is set to be published in the Federal Register on June 17.
“In particular, systemic constraints in the munitions industrial base, including limited production capacity, fragile supply chains, long-lead dependencies, and related production bottlenecks, may impair the ability of the United States to produce, sustain, and expand the availability of munitions, missiles, and equipment required for the national defense,” the directive stated.
The memorandum also said President Donald Trump would use the Defense Production Act to bolster the delivery of weapons, delegating War Secretary Pete Hegseth to provide for agreements and plans to support national defense under Section 708 of the act. It wasn’t immediately clear what weapons systems could see increases in productions, but the directive came after months of fighting between the United States and Iran.
The document set to be published in the Federal Register did not provide a reason for the depletion in munitions or establish a timeframe to replenish the stockpile.
Over the past weekend, Hegseth disputed the notion that the United States is having a shortfall of its munitions stockpile, saying that “we’ve got lots of them” and the United States is “building more than ever before.”
“That is a manufactured story that the media wants to peddle and ultimately our stockpiles are great, and they’re only getting stronger,” Hegseth told CBS News’s “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” on June 14, referring to claims about depleted munitions.
“Nobody makes better and more munitions than the United States of America, and we are open to co-production wherever we can,” Hegseth said, adding that “[U.S.] stockpiles are strong and will only get stronger in the future.”
The secretary’s comment was prompted by a question from Brennan about prior statements he made before a Senate Armed Forces Committee hearing on April 30, where he estimated it could take months or even years to replenish the weapons stockpile after the U.S. military started bombarding Iran.
The most intense fighting between the United States and Iran occurred from Feb. 28 until mid-April when Trump announced a ceasefire agreement along with a blockade of Iranian ports in a bid to set up negotiations with Iran on its nuclear program and the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz.
U.S. and Iranian officials are due in Switzerland on Friday to begin negotiations, opening a 60-day window for technical talks. These are expected to cover issues such as the future of Iran’s highly enriched uranium, the lifting of sanctions, and the future of Iran’s nuclear program. More details about the deal will be released at a later date, Trump has said.
The president said at the Group of Seven meetings in France on Wednesday morning that the text of the deal states clearly that Tehran will not have a nuclear weapon, and the full agreement would be made public in a formal setting in a few days.
The Department of War did not immediately respond to an Epoch Times request for comment Tuesday.
Reuters contributed to this report.
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