America\u2019s \u201cmunitions shortage\u201d is now making headlines, but the real problem is deeper and more dire: The entire US weapons-building industry is not only woefully weak, but geared up wrong.<\/p>\n
While the United States must continue to have the best, cutting-edge defense tech, we also need to produce massive amounts of relatively cheap missiles and interceptors as well as drones on a huge scale.<\/p>\n
The problems go all the way back to the misbegotten \u201creforms\u201d of Vietnam-era Defense Secretary Robert McNamara, who all but eliminated real competition and entrepreneurial energy from Pentagon procurement.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve been exacerbated by vast contraction of purchases and the industrial might to build as Washington began eviscerating Defense budgets in the Obama years (though the fateful reduction of US Navy shipbuilding dates back to the Bill Clinton era).<\/p>\n
Start with the missile\/interceptor shortage: In a July analysis, the Center for Strategic and International Studies estimated that the US military may have expended more than half<\/a> its already-depleted inventories in the ongoing Iran war.<\/p>\n It\u2019s an issue the Biden Pentagon should have confronted as the US rushed supplies to Ukraine<\/a> in the wake of Russia\u2019s 2022 invasion \u2014 and one the Trump Pentagon has been slow to focus on as it aimed to restore warfighting capacity on so many different fronts.<\/p>\n To be fair, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has been pushing hard<\/a> for a reorientation, for example, striking\u00a0framework agreements with innovators Anduril, CoAspire and Zone 5 to quickly produce a new family of low-cost, air-launched cruise missiles.<\/p>\n This crisis requires more outside-the-box thinking, like President Donald Trump\u2019s bid to let Ukraine produce Patriot<\/a> interceptors, as well as the private sector stepping up<\/a>, as with JP Morgan\u2019s move to resurrect US shipyards<\/a>.<\/p>\n Above all, the Pentagon urgently needs Congress to approve emergency spending <\/a>to get the ball rolling.<\/p>\n Instead, Democrats are stalling <\/a>on funding Defense, obsessing over US cooperation with Israel and raging against Trump\u2019s Iran war.<\/p>\n The nation can\u2019t afford back-biting blame games here: That these shortages are showing in a contest with a second-rank power <\/a>like Iran is a warning that we\u2019re not remotely ready if, say, China moves to conquer Taiwan and its strategically vital cutting-edge chip industry.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\tGet opinions and commentary from our columnists\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSubscribe to our daily Post Opinion newsletter!\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\tThanks for signing up!\n\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n Democrats in particular must wake up: They could easily win back the White House in 2028 only to find their new president helpless to contest Beijing\u2019s aggression, and \u201cit\u2019s all Trump\u2019s fault\u201d won\u2019t fly if they\u2019ve refused to let this prez rebuild and retool our defenses now.<\/p>\n