By Mike Stone
WASHINGTON, June 10 (Reuters) – The Trump administration plans to meet executives from the biggest U.S. defense contractors at the White House as soon as next week to discuss accelerating production, as U.S. strikes on Iran and other military operations draw down supplies, sources said.
The meeting would mark the second White House gathering with chief executives of major defense firms on ramping up weapons production. A March meeting included the CEOs and other officials from BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX Corporation, Boeing, Honeywell Aerospace and L3Harris Technologies, along with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The war with Iran, as well as supplies sent to Ukraine in recent years, have depleted U.S. weapons stockpiles.
White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said, “The United States military has more than enough munitions, ammo, and stockpiles to serve all of President Trump’s strategic goals and beyond, and Operation Epic Fury has exposed what happens when you mess with the United States. Even still, the President has urged our defense contractors to constantly produce more made-in-America weapons, which are the best in the world. Democrats destroyed our military, but President Trump rebuilt it.”
The meeting comes as Pentagon negotiators press contractors to move much faster, with production agreements struck earlier this year at the center of those efforts.
The agreements reached include a multiyear deal with Lockheed Martin to triple production of PAC-3 interceptors – missiles used by the Patriot air defense system to shoot down incoming threats – and quadruple output of THAAD interceptors, designed to destroy ballistic missiles at higher altitudes.
Separate multiyear deals with RTX aim to boost production of Tomahawk cruise missiles and AMRAAM air-to-air missiles. The deals, announced as “framework agreements,” have yet to translate into contracts.
Lockheed Martin, RTX, Boeing and L3Harris did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Mark Porter and Sanjeev Miglani)