Pentagon seeks to boost depleted missile stockpiles after Iran conflict

The U.S. military is accelerating production of high-end missiles after the recent conflict with Iran exhausted an estimated 1,500 Patriot missiles and other precision weapons. Lockheed Martin, which currently builds about 750 Patriot missiles a year at its Arkansas plant, plans to raise output to 2,000 annually by adding shifts and increasing automation, according to the company's missile division head Tim Cahill.

Each Patriot missile costs roughly $4 million, and the total value of munitions fired in the Iran operation is estimated at about $25 billion, based on analysis by Mark Cancian of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Cancian noted that while the United States could sustain a short-term conflict with Iran, a prolonged war against China would strain inventories after only a month or two.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has urged defense contractors to operate at a "wartime footing," a directive that Lockheed Martin describes as "controlled chaos" as it works to streamline production. The company relies on a supply chain of 500-1,000 vendors, and any single-source component can create bottlenecks, Cahill said.

L3Harris, which manufactures the Patriot’s rocket motors, has also increased output and begun construction of a new, more automated plant, though the facility will not be operational for another 16 months. The company highlighted the lengthy curing process for rocket fuel, which can take days to weeks.

In parallel, smaller firms such as CoAspire are developing low-cost cruise missiles that use off-the-shelf parts and a hobby-grade engine. CoAspire aims to supply up to 10,000 inexpensive missiles to the Pentagon, offering a potential supplement to higher-priced systems.

Cancian estimates that restoring missile inventories to pre-Iran levels could take one to five years, with additional years needed to reach stockpile sizes deemed sufficient for a major conflict with China.