On the 24th, the White House convened a meeting with defense giants; General Motors and Ford will shift production to Patriot and Tomahawk missiles.
Trump personally confirmed on the 22nd that the White House had called a conference of defense contractors on the 24th. Idle auto plants such as General Motors and Ford will pivot to producing "Patriot" and "Tomahawk" missiles, with GM expressing great enthusiasm for weapon manufacturing. However, White House spokesperson Karine Kelly simultaneously insisted: "The U.S. military's ammunition stockpile is ample, exceeding all strategic requirements." This statement contradicts Trump’s actions in March, when he pressured seven major defense contractors to quadruple their "elite-grade" production capacity.
Data doesn’t lie—high-end munitions are being rapidly depleted.
According to CSIS estimates, replenishing inventory would take at least 3 to 4 years. Lockheed Martin’s vice president candidly admitted to the UK Financial Times: "We can’t commit to delivery timelines for our allies." Firing just four days of warfare consumes what it takes a year to produce in Patriot missiles.
Moreover, Iran and Ukraine are both consuming production capacity—plus, the $19 billion Ukrainian military order left by Biden still occupies production schedules. Trump signed an executive order in January banning defense stocks from dividends and share buybacks, and this month invoked the Defense Production Act to force increased output. Earlier this month, Van Berg had already notified contractors to prepare for the meeting, originally scheduled for June 11 but postponed to the 24th due to U.S.-Iran negotiations.
Kelly’s claim of “ample inventory” translates to: enough for one more war—but nothing left for the next one. While shifting car factories to weapons production sounds nostalgic (General Motors and Ford did exactly this during WWII), precision-guided missiles aren't jeeps. They can’t be assembled via simple stamping and welding. The bottlenecks—electronics components, guidance heads, solid propellants—are so complex that even General Motors’ assembly lines may struggle to master them within three years.
And with Iran’s 60-day negotiation window now open, if Israel launches another strike in southern Lebanon, this veil of pretense could be ripped off instantly.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1868790533642247/
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author.