Brig. Gen. Robert Mikesh, charged with offensive fires, detailed a quadruple challenge — energetics and propulsion, targeting and seekers, the industrial base and “munitions breadth and depth.”
“We need a more comprehensive missile defeat strategy that focuses on interceptors, [but also] equally so on non-kinetic effects, both electronic warfare and directed energy, and the type of targeting in C2 … that will enable us to use that data to make decisions to engage targets faster,” said SMD head Lt. Gen. John Rafferty.
Multi-orbit mission capabilities are accelerating decision making across domains.
With $70.5 billion in the FY27 budget request for munitions, a handful of analysts said they expect the Pentagon to spread the funding over several years and to fuel multiyear buys.
While Gen. Dan Caine said the US has "sufficient precision munitions for the task at hand," lawmakers are considering a high-dollar supplemental infusion to backfill missile supplies.
A structured Surge Inventory Purchase Vehicle could be the key to ensuring America’s inventory stays stocked and ready for wartime, writes John Ferrari in this op-ed.
“We won't hesitate to come forward and ask for what we need to make sure that we maintain our stocks,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told senators today.
A decorated combat aviator and biotech CEO advocates preparing for novel viral threats before the next crisis.
"We were pretty early in the Netherlands I think to order extra [ammunition], but you see what is happening," she said. "We're all standing in line at the at the ammunition factories."