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President Donald Trump is meeting Friday with top US defense officials as his administration looks to speed up weapons production while military operations against Iran continue.
The White House insisted that the session had been scheduled weeks ago and was not called in response to a battlefield shortage. Officials described the meeting as part of a broader effort to strengthen the US defense industrial base and speed up production of American-made weapons.
“The U.S. military has more than enough weapons, ammunition, and weapons to continue to dismantle the Iranian regime and complete Operation Epic Fury, no matter how long it takes,” White House press secretary Caroline Leavitt said in a statement to Fox News.
“Nevertheless, President Trump has been very focused on strengthening our military, which is why this meeting with defense contractors was scheduled a few weeks ago. The President will continue to ask these American companies to quickly build American-made weapons, which are the best in the world.”
The companies present are Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX Corporation, Boeing, Honeywell and L3Harris Technologies.
President Donald Trump is meeting Friday with top US defense officials as his administration looks to speed up weapons production while military operations against Iran continue. (Photo by Alex Brandon/AP)
The meeting comes as the US military is still involved in Operation Epic Fury, an operation targeting Iranian military assets following coordinated US-Israeli strikes. Administration officials have stressed that US preparedness remains strong, as the pace of missile defense efforts has drawn close attention from Capitol Hill.
During the 12-day conflict with Iran in 2025, the US military fired more than 150 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors – about a quarter of the global inventory – to protect Israeli and US assets from Iranian missile attacks, according to a defense assessment. Patriot PAC-3 MSE missiles are currently being produced at a rate of about 600 to 650 per year, with replenishment times measured in months or years rather than weeks.
LEGISLATOR WARNS IRAN COULD BUILD ‘HIROSHIMA-STYLE’ WEAPON, SAYS IT DOESN’T HAVE URANIUM SYSTEM
American and Israeli officials previously estimated that Iran had a large arsenal of ballistic missiles — about 2,000 to 3,000 missiles of various types at the start of the conflict. Chief of the Central Command, Adm. Brad Cooper said Thursday that Iran’s missile attacks have dropped by 90% since the conflict began.
In this US Navy handout, the USS Thomas Hudner fires a Tomahawk surface-to-surface attack missile in support of Operation Epic Fury on March 1, 2026, at sea. (US Navy/via Getty Images)
US Central Command released a video showing strikes on Iran’s mobile missile launchers. (@CENTCOM via X)
Defense planners defined the missile defense inventory as part of a broader strategic balancing exercise. The same sophisticated systems used to protect US bases and partners in the Middle East are also being supplied to Ukraine and deployed in the Indo-Pacific, creating what some analysts describe as a “zero-sum” competition for equipment in all theaters.
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Lawmakers coming out of recent divisive debates have raised questions about sustainability if jobs grow.
Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., warned that the campaign could be a “mathematics problem,” balancing the volume of incoming missiles against limited interceptor assets and production capabilities.
Some members, including Republicans briefed on the operation, said officials have assured Congress the US military remains in a strong position.
Current and former defense officials have drawn a distinction between offensive strike weapons — which are often fired from pre-positioned stockpiles — and defensive ones like the Patriot and THAAD systems, which require long production times and cannot be produced quickly at scale.
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