US Army Surging Munitions Production Amid Shortage Fears

The United States is currently reevaluating its acquisitions of certain high-end weapons, which experts fear could be reduced in the event that there is a conflict with China.

According to Douglas Bush (Assistant Secretary of Army), U.S. Army officials are working to increase production to address the problems associated with replenishing domestic stockpiles.

“Starting early last summer… we went through a deliberate effort to start planning for the production ramp-ups that are now underway,” Bush spoke during a March 3, talk at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a security-focused thinktank.

“We are creating this production capacity, trying to create options for future decisions in terms of how much we’ll need. But if we don’t do the production ramp-ups we won’t have those choices to make in the first place.”

Bush stated that the Army was “now in execution mode,” It was necessary to increase production in order to quickly replenish stockpiles. However, many munitions had difficult production timelines due to complex supply chains and security regulations.

Moreover, Bush said, it was impossible to tell just what the United States’ stockpile needs would be in the future due to the open-ended nature of the war in Ukraine, but stocking requirements would likely be higher due to heightened international tensions.

“The long-term challenge will be how much of that capacity can we sustain over time, post conflict,” Bush spoke.

“… We don’t know how long the conflict will last. We don’t know how low our stocks will be.”

Bush announced that the United States would work closely with its allies in Europe to reduce uncertainty and improve supply chain strengths.

“We have to have more than one source for these things and an allied source, that they sustain but we can draw on that’s just a total win-win,” Bush spoke.

“That’s all the democracies in the world working together to be a giant arsenal and not just us doing it.”

Bush acknowledged that government expansion of production facilities would not solve all the problems.

Private companies who maintain their own supply chains are responsible for the Army’s supply precision munitions.

“Our precision munitions production is all in the private sector,” Bush spoke.

Bush stated that the Army was working in partnership with the Biden administration, to subsidize private production increases, which would otherwise have been financed by production companies.

US Might Run Out Of Missiles in War With China

The United States has been trying to stop aggression from communist China in the East, South and Taiwan Strait and the East and South China Seas by increasing military production of munitions. This is why it has become a hot topic over the past year.

CSIS’ January report, for instance, showed that the United States would be able to respond quickly to any threat. run out of critical munitions During a war against China over Taiwan’s future, as “the U.S. defense industrial base lacks adequate surge capacity for a major war.”

The United States is stocked with large amounts of small arms ammunition. However, due to low stockpiles, slow acquisition and manufacturing, the nation could run out of long-range antiship missiles (LRASMs). This could happen in less than a week.

“The U.S. defense industrial base is not adequately prepared for the competitive security environment that now exists,” The report stated.

“In a major regional conflict—such as a war with China in the Taiwan Strait—the U.S. use of munitions would likely exceed the current stockpiles of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), leading to a problem of ‘empty bins.'”

Bush recognized the difficulties in both finding the correct capacity of munitions, and positioning and using munitions across the vast Pacific territory.

“The Pacific in particular is one of the most difficult logistical challenges in the world… for sustaining large-scale combat operations,” Bush spoke.

“The broader joint view is, of course, that a fight with China will be very much a precision munitions fight.”

Bush expressed optimism, however, that new efforts to improve military production capacity and grow the private sector responsible to building smart munitions could be successful in preparing the United States to face a conflict at the Indo-Pacific.

“It is definitely a daunting challenge,” Bush declared, “but… I think there’s a lot of good work going that direction.”