Pressure mounts on US defense executives to boost weapons production

CARLISLE, Pennsylvania — President Donald Trump is expected to urge top defense executives on Wednesday to accelerate weapons production and expand manufacturing capacity as wars in Ukraine and the Middle East strain U.S. stockpiles and expose bottlenecks in the nation’s industrial base.

Trump is scheduled to participate in a roundtable discussion capping a two-day Defense and Innovation Summit hosted by Republican Senator Dave McCormick at the U.S. Army War College in Pennsylvania. The event gathers senior military leaders, defense contractors, investors and technology executives to discuss strengthening the U.S. industrial base and speeding the delivery of advanced weapons systems.

Trump’s appearance underscores a broader focus by the administration on defense production as prolonged conflicts have consumed large quantities of missiles, interceptors and other weapons, while highlighting the limits of the U.S. military supply chain and production capacity. Trump is expected to make several Pennsylvania-based defense investment announcements.

Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Dan Caine urged defense companies on Tuesday to accelerate production and innovation, saying the military needs industry partners to help deliver capabilities faster as warfare evolves.

“What I need you to know, and I know this is simple for me to say, but hard to do, is to go faster. Please go faster. Think bolder,” Caine said.

Broader industrial strategy

For Trump, expanding defense manufacturing has become part of a wider economic strategy to revive U.S. industrial capacity, with the Pentagon increasingly viewed as a catalyst for factory investment, advanced manufacturing and domestic supply chains.

In late June, Trump met with munitions makers at the White House to urge the industry to move faster.

The United States has supplied large quantities of weapons to allies while also using munitions in its own military operations, raising concerns about inventories of key air-defense and precision-guided weapons and increasing pressure on contractors to boost output. Soaring demand for rocket motors used to power missiles and other weapons has spurred new thinking about supply chains.

Seeking big returns, Silicon Valley-style startups are now taking on defense companies that have long dominated the industry, pulled into the competition by a need for production speed, high volume and lower costs. Legacy solid rocket motor makers Northrop Grumman and L3Harris say they have been pushing their own research and development to pull in new technologies like 3D printing and new mixing technologies.

Michael Duffey, who oversees buying for the Pentagon, told the summit audience that the department is using long-term procurement contracts to give defense companies the confidence to invest billions of dollars in expanding factories, citing roughly $20 billion in private investment tied to plans to boost production of Patriot missiles and other high-demand weapons.

“The global environment now demands that we produce at this scale, at this speed, at this volume,” he said.

宾夕法尼亚州卡莱尔——预计唐纳德·特朗普总统将于周三敦促国防高层加快武器生产并扩大制造能力，因为乌克兰和中东的战争使美国的武器储备捉襟见肘，并暴露了美国工业基础的瓶颈。

特朗普计划参加一场圆桌讨论会，这场讨论会是为期两天的国防与创新峰会的闭幕式，峰会由共和党参议员戴夫·麦考密克在宾夕法尼亚州美国陆军战争学院主持。此次峰会将汇聚高级军事领导人、国防承包商、投资者和科技企业高管，共同探讨如何加强美国工业基础并加快先进武器系统的交付。

特朗普此次露面凸显了本届政府对国防生产的重视程度，因为旷日持久的冲突消耗了大量的导弹、拦截器和其他武器，同时也暴露出美国军方供应链和生产能力的局限性。预计特朗普将宣布几项在宾夕法尼亚州进行的国防投资项目。

参谋长联席会议主席丹·凯恩将军周二敦促国防企业加快生产和创新，称随着战争的演变，军方需要工业合作伙伴来帮助更快地交付能力。

“我需要你们明白的一点，我知道说起来容易做起来难，那就是加快速度。请加快速度。要更有魄力，”凯恩说道。

更广泛的产业战略

对特朗普而言，扩大国防制造业已成为振兴美国工业产能的更广泛经济战略的一部分，五角大楼日益被视为工厂投资、先进制造业和国内供应链的催化剂。

6 月下旬，特朗普在白宫会见了军火制造商，敦促该行业加快生产速度。

美国向盟友提供了大量武器，同时也在自身军事行动中使用弹药，这引发了人们对关键防空和精确制导武器库存的担忧，并加大了承包商提高产量的压力。用于导弹和其他武器的火箭发动机需求激增，促使人们重新思考供应链问题。

为了追求高额回报，硅谷式的初创公司正挑战长期主导该行业的国防企业，它们之所以加入竞争，是因为需要提高生产速度、扩大产量并降低成本。传统的固体火箭发动机制造商诺斯罗普·格鲁曼公司和L3Harris公司表示，他们一直在加大研发投入，以引入3D打印和新型混合技术等新技术。

负责五角大楼采购的迈克尔·达菲在峰会上告诉与会者，国防部正在利用长期采购合同，让国防公司有信心投资数十亿美元扩建工厂。他提到，与提高爱国者导弹和其他高需求武器产量相关的计划，已吸引了约 200 亿美元的私人投资。

他说：“全球环境现在要求我们以这样的规模、速度和产量进行生产。”