WASHINGTON — The Pentagon’s supplemental funding request to replace weapons expended in Iran is expected to involve buying new types of equipment, not just legacy systems, the department’s chief financial officer said today.
“We’re looking at options, and we’re looking to make sure we make the right investments in capabilities,” Jules “Jay” Hurst, who is performing the duties of the Pentagon comptroller, said during a panel at the Reagan Institute’s National Security Innovation Base Summit. “So not just replacing things, but buying new things, right? New entrants, looking at that. So I think everyone will be pleased with the direction it goes.”
Hurst declined to lay out the current dollar value of the supplemental — which sources previously described as north of $50 billion. Pentagon officials told lawmakers Tuesday that the first week of the war cost more than $11.3 billion, The New York Times reported on Wednesday. Hurst said the figure is “probably a ballpark number” when asked about it today.
Hurst declined to comment on when the funding request would be sent to Capitol Hill.
“We’re obviously working on options for our leadership to look at and to present to the Secretary and the President, and we’re going to continue to work those and at the appropriate time we’ll reveal the details,” he said.
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So far, Trump administration officials contend that the US has adequate munition stockpiles to continue operations inside Iran, in part, because US forces are switching up which weapons they use as they have more and more control of the Iranian airspace.
“We used more exquisite standoff munitions at the start, but no longer need to,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said last week. “Our stockpiles of those, as well as Patriots, remains extremely strong.”
Today, Pentagon acquisition czar Michael Duffey affirmed that the US “absolutely” has enough munitions but is also looking at what options to procure more. While he didn’t detail exactly what weapons that may be, he said Operation Epic Fury has reiterated the need for a mix of exquisite and cheaper options.
“Clearly, there’s a need for both,” he told the audience during a lunchtime address.
“We have adversaries that have exquisite and low-cost mass, and we need to have a hybrid force that has the ability, in a cost-effective way, to accomplish that mission and I think we’re learning lessons from it,” he later added.
Asked about the likelihood of Congress passing an Iran supplemental given Democrats’ opposition to the war, Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Va., said he believed Democrats would be supportive due to longstanding concerns about the state of US munitions stockpiles.
“There is a need that was there before the Iran conflict,” said Wittman, who leads the House Armed Services tactical air and land subcommittee. “There’s a need there to build our weapons magazine depth. There’s a need there to make sure we’re building more expendable and attritable platforms. So those things extend even beyond the Iran conflict. This just makes it more immediate.”
More Munitions Contracts
As lawmakers await the supplemental request, Duffey said the Pentagon is eyeing deals with vendors to help refill munitions stockpiles that could be similar to the ones recently inked with Lockheed Martin on PAC-3 and THAAD, and RTX on Tomahawk cruise missile and AMRAAM air-to-air missile.
“Not every program will be a perfect candidate for this kind of a deal but … there’s some key characteristics that I think are consistent across these systems,” Duffey said.
The Defense Department and Lockheed Martin, for example, cemented a deal to more than triple PAC-3 Missile Segment Enhancement production over seven years, with the company aiming to increase its production capacity to 2,000 per year by the end of 2030, according to its CEO. RTX also secured a seven-year deal that includes increasing annual production of Tomahawks to more than 1,000; AMRAAMs to at least 1,900; and Standard Missile-6 to more than 500.
Such arrangements, Duffey explained, provides vendors with a clear demand signal to follow through on plans to shore up the supply chain and grow the production lines. That said, Duffey said the department is cautious about inking deals when there is “an emerging competitor” it’s eyeing in the areas of low-cost cruise missiles, hypersonic rounds, and, possibly, some interceptors.
Another part of the equation, Hurst said, is the collaboration with congressional appropriators to ensure they have the information to conduct oversight while granting additional flexibility for the Pentagon to move money if needed to maximize production.
“If I have two interceptors that are being produced right now, and I’ve got space on one lane, not the other, I’m losing so much time if I can’t shift money between those accounts without a reprogramming action. And we need some more flexibility to do that,” he said. “We need to be able to take opportunities at the industrial base as they present themselves, so we can get max execution.”