U.S. President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act (DPA), enacted during the Cold War. The move aims to quickly replenish stocks of key weapons and munitions that were heavily expended in the 106-day war with Iran.
According to a compilation of major outlets including The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), AP, and Bloomberg on the 16th, President Trump formally ordered Pete Hegseth, the defense minister, on the 11th to invoke the Defense Production Act. Minister Hegseth was delegated full authority to enter voluntary agreements with private defense contractors and rapidly ramp up weapons production for national defense. Trump said, "I determine that a risk exists that could pose a direct threat to defense or related preparedness programs," as the backdrop. He then pointed to "limited production capacity, vulnerable supply chains, and production bottlenecks" as the main causes of the weapons shortfall in the United States.
The Defense Production Act that Trump turned to has been used as an emergency card for securing critical supplies at every national crisis since it was enacted in 1950 during the Korean War to procure military materiel. The law grants the president strong wartime control authority to compel private corporations to prioritize production of defense-related goods or to order massive funding to expand production facilities during national security or emergency situations. Trump himself used the law in early 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic to accelerate production of test kits and masks while in his first term. More recently, it has been mobilized for key mineral manufacturing and expanding vaccine production. Analysts see this invocation as a strategic last resort aimed at powerfully deterring in advance any security miscalculation by China that, exploiting America's weakness in handling two fronts simultaneously, could attempt a military invasion of Taiwan—going beyond a simple restocking of the arsenal.
Since war broke out with Iran on Feb. 28, the United States has poured precision-guided munitions onto the battlefield at an unprecedented scale. According to U.S. Ministry of National Defense officials, U.S. forces fired more than 1,000 long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles during this period. Advanced air-defense missiles such as THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defense), Patriot, and Standard Missile (SM) ship-to-air interceptors were also estimated to have been expended by around 1,500 to 2,000 rounds. The U.S. Ministry of National Defense assessed that fully replacing and restoring the massively depleted weapons stockpiles to prewar levels could take up to six years.
Within the U.S. military and the administration, there is a palpable sense of urgency that the weapons shortage could directly trigger a security crisis in the Taiwan Strait. The Taiwan Strait is a key artery for global shipping and the heart of the global semiconductor supply chain. If a security gap materializes in which the United States cannot defend Taiwan due to a weapons shortfall, the global economy and the geopolitical landscape would plunge into uncontrollable turmoil. Citing multiple senior government officials, the WSJ reported, "The high rate of munitions consumption in Iran could severely degrade, in the short term, the U.S. military's operational ability to defend Taiwan from a Chinese invasion." Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) Dan Caine reportedly warned President Trump directly that "if military operations in Iran drag on, the entire U.S. Ministry of National Defense weapons inventory could face a fatal risk."
According to a report released in April by the influential U.S. think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), munitions consumed in the Iran war amount to about 27% of the total Tomahawk inventory, about 23% of the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), and one-third of the SM-6 missile, known as the "Patriot of the sea," based on prewar stock levels. Nearly half of the SM-3 missile, a core of the air-defense network, more than half of Patriot interceptors, and up to 80% of THAAD interceptors are estimated to have been depleted. Mark Cancian, a senior adviser at CSIS, predicted, "It will take at least a few years to rebuild these inventories."
Last week, President Trump urgently summoned the chief executives (CEOs) of the top seven key defense contractors, including Lockheed Martin and RTX, to the White House and was set to hold a strategy meeting with Ministry of National Defense Deputy Director General Stephen Feinberg. Bloomberg reported the meeting was temporarily postponed as talks with Iran moved urgently. It is a sign that the administration is treating the weapons depletion issue in near-wartime mode. The U.S. Ministry of National Defense also pressured private corporations to sharply increase annual production of key weapons and signed long-term supply contracts even before the war with Iran broke out.