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The Pentagon has told the U.S. defense industry it has three weeks to submit plans for dramatically faster weapons production and delivery, as the military grapples with severe munitions shortages stemming from the war with Iran, according to an internal memo obtained by The Washington Post.
Deputy Defense Secretary Steve Feinberg wrote to industry leaders on Wednesday, telling them they had no more than 21 days to submit plans that would "drive significantly faster, more aggressive delivery schedules and/or increased production for critical capabilities." The memo, which had not previously been reported, reflects mounting urgency inside the Pentagon over its depleted weapons stockpiles.
"Years-long development cycles are not acceptable," Feinberg wrote. "We must dramatically accelerate our program schedules and expand our production capacity now."
The order comes amid tension between President Donald Trump and the Defense Department over the weapons shortage, according to two people familiar with the matter. It is the latest in a string of moves by the Pentagon and the White House to address a problem that, according to industry experts, may not be fully resolved until a gridlocked Congress approves additional defense spending.
Trump on Thursday pushed back on concerns about the shortage, writing on Truth Social that the United States has "massive amounts" of munitions and that "large amounts are being manufactured and shipped to the U.S. as needed."
The scale of the shortfall has been steep. In the first month of the Iran war alone, the U.S. fired more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles and more than 1,000 Patriot and THAAD interceptors, The Post has previously reported. The Army also expended more than 1,300 of its tactical ballistic missiles in the opening weeks of fighting.
As of last week, the global inventory of Patriot missiles had fallen from 2,200 before the war to fewer than 827, while THAAD interceptor stocks dropped from 452 to fewer than 278, according to an analysis by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
The depleted stockpiles have raised the risk to U.S. service members and pushed the White House to pull back from escalating attacks, The Post has previously reported.
Feinberg's memo follows a broader push by the White House to draw defense companies into the funding fight.
In late July, executives from legacy contractors and newer Silicon Valley weapons firms were summoned to the White House to meet with Trump's chief of staff, Susie Wiles, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought and White House Legislative Affairs Director James Braid, according to three people familiar with the meeting, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.
Companies represented at the meeting included Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, autonomous weapons maker Anduril and data analytics firm Palantir.
Executives were asked to directly lobby lawmakers to increase defense spending through congressional reconciliation, the people said. Fox News first reported on the meeting.
In recent months, the Pentagon has also announced a series of "framework agreements", nonbinding arrangements that signal government intent to buy weapons but require congressional funding to take effect, with major contractors and emerging firms to boost supplies of both low-cost munitions and advanced air defense systems such as THAAD and Patriot interceptors.
"They are agreements to agree, and so they're not contracts," said Tom Karako, director of the Missile Defense Project at CSIS. "Almost nothing has been contracted, and that's the problem."
Pentagon chief spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement that "working directly with industry leaders to accelerate production is not new" and has been "the clear intent of the President and this Secretary from the start."
He confirmed the Feinberg memo "is real" and said it "will inform the fiscal year 2028 budget submitted to Congress for funding" as part of the department's "ongoing push to rebuild the defense industrial base."
The Pentagon has taken concrete steps in recent weeks to expand its weapons supply. On Monday, the department announced a framework agreement with Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin to increase production of PAC-3 and THAAD missiles.
Last week, it awarded Lockheed Martin a contract worth up to $58.6 billion to triple PAC-3 production by 2030.
In May, the Pentagon struck framework agreements with defense technology firms including Anduril, Castelion, CoAspire, Leidos and Zone 5 to expand strike capabilities and purchase low-cost missiles. It also hosted Silicon Valley start-up leaders in late June, signaling their expected role in resupplying the military.
Speaking in November at the National War College in Washington, Hegseth described his vision for overhauling the Pentagon's acquisition process in partnership with industry. "American industry and its innovative spirit are begging to be unleashed to solve our most complex and dangerous warfighting problems," he said.
"We need to get out of our own way, out of your way and enter into real partnership with you rather than overprescribe and decelerate your natural progress."
The Pentagon has also brought in former Silicon Valley executives, including former Uber executive Emil Michael, now under secretary for research and engineering, to help overhaul defense innovation and procurement.
But the framework agreements central to the Pentagon's acceleration strategy hinge on passage of a $1.15 trillion defense spending bill, which remains stalled in Congress as Democrats object to the scale of the proposed increases.
"That's the dilemma, that's the danger," Karako said. "This really, really critical thing is in jeopardy because of congressional inability to appropriate."
In the memo, Feinberg said the Defense Department is "fundamentally shifting how [it] develops, produces, and fields military capabilities to meet current and future challenges."
He identified several programs as priorities for acceleration in the 2028 fiscal year budget review, including the Next Generation Interceptor missile defense program, the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System, a mobile air defense radar system, an advanced pilot training system and a space-based missile tracking system.
The memo directed industry leaders to plan for "accelerated delivery" offering "the fastest production schedule to deliver projected orders and increase capacity," and to "propose specific capital investments and facility expansions... to support the Department's commitment to higher volume, sustained orders."
Feinberg also asked companies to "address how we will collaborate as partners and demonstrate your willingness to put skin in the game."
Karako said some contractors are already spending their own money to ramp up production while Congress remains deadlocked and framework agreements await approval, but that this carries risk. "It's a little bit of a gamble because they're sticking their neck out," he said. "They're publicly traded companies, and you're not supposed to really stick your neck out on a promise."
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