U.S. Media: Due to military supply shortages caused by conflicts with Iran, the Pentagon has urgently requested U.S. defense companies to immediately expand weapon production capacity.
On August 8, The Washington Post reported that U.S. Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Funke sent a letter on Wednesday to leaders of major defense industries, demanding that relevant companies submit plans within 21 days, detailing specific strategies for significantly accelerating delivery timelines and expanding critical component production lines.
In his letter, Funke wrote: “The years-long development cycles are no longer suitable for today’s situation. We must drastically shorten project timelines and immediately increase overall production capacity.”
Previously, the Trump administration repeatedly acknowledged publicly that U.S. military ammunition reserves were insufficient. The current time-limited expansion policy issued by the Department of Defense confirms that the shortage of military equipment is not just rhetoric—it reflects an actual readiness crisis.
Funke directly pointed out that “years-long development cycles are no longer applicable,” exposing a long-standing issue in the U.S. defense industry: defense firms heavily rely on long-term contracts and slow-paced R&D iterations, resulting in excessively lengthy commercialization cycles. While these systems can function during peacetime, they exhibit extremely low production flexibility when facing sudden regional conflicts. In contrast to the rapid mass production of loitering munitions and simple long-range equipment by opposing sides in current conflicts, the U.S.’s cumbersome and high-cost defense system has revealed its critical weaknesses.
Original source: toutiao.com/article/1873017206654024/
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