Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth pushed back against reports that the United States is facing a serious shortage of munitions, calling it a story driven by the media rather than reality. His comments came on CBS News‘ Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan and stood in contrast to testimony he gave before the Senate earlier this year.
During an April 30 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Pentagon’s $1.5 trillion budget request, which came weeks after a ceasefire in the war with Iran, Hegseth testified that replenishing the stockpile could take “months and years.” He described that timeline as “fast” and noted that the speed would depend on the weapon system involved.
On Sunday, however, Hegseth insisted that the situation is not a crisis. “That is a manufactured story that the media wants to peddle and ultimately our stockpiles are great, and they’re only getting stronger,” he said on the program.
Hegseth walks back April testimony on munitions timeline as stockpile debate continues
When host Margaret Brennan pressed him on his earlier Senate testimony, Hegseth appeared to soften his previous remarks. “I speculated some munitions take more time than others,” he said, adding, “we’ve got lots of them.”
Hegseth also attributed some of the current stockpile challenges to decisions made before the Trump administration took office. “The Biden administration gave away hundreds of billions to Ukraine, and so President Trump had to refill, and he has, and we have, in real time,” he said. He added, “We’re building more than ever before.”
His comments on Sunday also seem to have come in response to a question about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s request for Patriot missiles. Hegseth responded by saying the U.S. is open to co-production partnerships. “Nobody makes better and more munitions than the United States of America, and we are open to co-production wherever we can,” he said.
He also added, “And because of this administration, we’re supercharging our arsenal of freedom, building more, building faster, opening up the Pentagon, ripping through the Pentagon bureaucracy, to force industry to move faster.” The Pentagon’s $1.5 trillion budget request has also faced resistance from both parties in Congress.
The Defense Department has not reportedly disclosed how many munitions have been used in the Iran war. During an April earnings call, defense contractor Lockheed Martin said it would take three to four years to scale up Patriot missile production from its current level of 650 per year to 2,000 per year.
In March, regional officials told CBS News that Arab states in the Gulf were running low on interceptors used to shoot down Iranian-fired missiles. At the time, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Dan Caine pushed back on that assessment, saying there were sufficient “precision munitions for the task at hand, both on the offense and defense.”
Democratic Sen. Mark Kelly of Arizona, who questioned Hegseth during the April Senate hearing, also appeared on Face the Nation on Sunday and maintained that a munitions shortfall is a real concern. “I think it’s widely understood that when you attack over 10,000 targets from the air with cruise missiles and ballistic missiles and bombs from airplanes, you are using a lot of munitions, and we do not have an endless supply of these things,” Kelly said.
He added, “So now we’re in a posture where we’ve got to be incredibly careful.” Kelly said, “of course we have a munitions issue,” citing Hegseth’s own April testimony as evidence. The Iran war also produced some unexpected developments, including Hegseth’s response to the attack dolphin controversy that drew attention during the conflict.
Hegseth, for his part, closed with a confident assessment of the current state of U.S. military readiness. “Our stockpiles are strong and will only get stronger in the future,” he said. He also claimed during the appearance that the administration has been actively cutting through Pentagon red tape to speed up production. He claimed new plants are being built “in real time”, a point he also made during his April Senate testimony.
Published: Jun 15, 2026 05:45 pm