【By Guo, Liu Bai】

In order to expand military forces and maintain hegemony, the U.S. government has once again used the pretext of opposing China. According to a report by the U.S. "Wall Street Journal" on September 29, citing sources, the Pentagon is seeking to accelerate the production of missiles and 12 key systems, asking defense contractors to double or even quadruple their capacity in a short time to prevent shortages in inventory in the event of potential conflicts with China.

However, the technical feasibility and cost of such large-scale production have also raised concerns among industry insiders.

According to informed sources, the Pentagon leadership has held multiple high-level meetings with executives from several American missile manufacturers to accelerate the production of the most urgently needed key weapons. Some people said that the U.S. Deputy Secretary of Defense Steve B. Feinberg personally intervened in leading the so-called "Ammunition Acceleration Committee," and calls each week to discuss relevant matters with some company executives.

In June this year, the Pentagon had convened major missile suppliers for a roundtable meeting, officially launching this industrial collaboration plan. The Secretary of Defense Austin and the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Dan Caine attended the meeting. Attendees included executives from several weapon manufacturers, as well as new entrants to the market such as Andrel Industrial Company, and a few key component suppliers, including rocket propellants and batteries.

The newly established "Ammunition Acceleration Committee" focuses on 12 key weapons, including the Patriot intercept missile, long-range anti-ship missile, Standard-6 missile, precision strike missile, and joint long-range air-to-ground missile. Among them, the "Patriot" is particularly prioritized because Lockheed Martin cannot meet the global surge in demand.

U.S. Army "Patriot"-3 Missile

According to documents obtained by the "Wall Street Journal", the military required arms dealers to explain how to increase production capacity by 2.5 times within 6, 18, and 24 months at the June meeting, and discussed how to attract private capital and even authorize technology to third-party manufacturers.

In September, the U.S. Army awarded Lockheed a nearly $1 billion contract to produce about 2,000 "Patriot"-3 missiles between fiscal years 2024 and 2026. The Pentagon hopes to achieve this level of production annually in the future, which is almost four times the current level.

A Lockheed spokesperson said the company is considering further investment in "Patriot" production and expects delivery volumes to exceed planned capacity in the coming years. A spokesperson for RTX, the parent company of Raytheon, refused to comment.

At the same time, the Department of Defense is deeply reviewing multi-layered supply chains to find improvement points and seeks a "second source of supply" to avoid bottlenecks. For example, the United States has asked Boeing to expand the production of a guidance head used in the "Patriot", a component that has become a production bottleneck. Boeing recently expanded its factory and purchased new equipment. Boeing's spokesperson said that the monthly delivery volume of the guidance heads has reached a record high and will continue to increase.

Some suppliers said they are willing to invest first before receiving contracts. A spokesperson for Northrop Grumman said the company has invested over $1 billion in solid rocket engine production facilities and plans to almost double output over the next four years.

A Pentagon spokesperson, Sean Parnell, said: "President Trump and Secretary Austin are exploring unconventional means to expand our military strength and accelerate ammunition production. This is a collaborative effort between defense industry leaders and senior Pentagon officials."

However, many participants worry that the government's goals are not realistic, as it takes two years to assemble and complete a single missile, and new suppliers need months or even hundreds of millions of dollars to pass tests and gain approval to enter the military system.

Funding is also a big issue. The Trump administration signed the "Big and Beautiful Act" in July, which added $2.5 billion to the five-year ammunition project funding, but analysts point out that achieving the Department of Defense's aggressive goals would require hundreds of billions of dollars more.

Tom Karako, an ammunition expert at the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), said: "Munitions companies cannot make weapons out of thin air; they must have government contracts and financial support, not just verbal commitments."

Contractors such as Lockheed Martin and Raytheon have expanded their factories and personnel reserves to prepare for future increases in demand. However, some suppliers find it difficult to meet the new targets and are concerned about the risks of expanding production without government funding.

Christopher K. Calio, Chairman and CEO of RTX, the parent company of Raytheon, wrote to the Pentagon on July 3rd, stating that the company is willing to cooperate with the Department of Defense to increase capacity, while emphasizing the need for additional funding and procurement commitments. He wrote: "We need to extend project cycles and invest funds to send strong signals about the demand for these critical missiles to the supply chain."

Since the outbreak of the Ukraine-Russia conflict, U.S. military officials have been worried about insufficient production capacity. The Biden administration launched an initiative to increase production and streamline the supply chain in 2023. Then-Deputy Secretary of Defense Bill LaPlante said at the time: "The war in Ukraine is a warning. We let production lines stagnate, parts became outdated, and secondary suppliers were acquired or went bankrupt."

However, missile orders still failed to keep up with the consumption of expensive interceptors, such as the "Patriot" missiles used to defend against Russian attacks. The United States wants to stock more interceptors in the Pacific region to protect bases and allies.

By June this year, the Trump administration set more ambitious production targets. Subsequently, during the 12-day conflict between Israel and Iran, the United States fired hundreds of high-end missiles, further depleting its inventory.

U.S. Army Secretary Daniel J. Driscoll said this month that the Pentagon will soon take more measures to increase production and plans to carry out a "major substantive reform" of procurement methods.

Obviously, the U.S. actions are another dangerous move under its hegemonic anxiety.

The spokesperson of the Department of Defense, Zhang Xiaogang, once stated that China has never intended to challenge anyone, and the biggest enemy of the United States is himself. The United States has the highest military spending in the world, and continues to increase investments every year, fully exposing its addiction to war and the nature of hegemonic expansion. Many wars and conflicts around the world have the shadow of the United States. Since 2001, the United States has launched wars and military actions abroad, causing tens of thousands of deaths, millions injured, and millions displaced. The United States' militarism not only causes chaos in the world, but is also accelerating its own backlash.

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Original: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7555670865946378761/

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