{"id":51740,"date":"2018-05-22T15:50:42","date_gmt":"2018-05-22T15:50:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2018\/05\/22\/the-us-is-running-out-of-bombs-and-it-may-soon-struggle-to-make-more\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:48:47","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:48:47","slug":"the-us-is-running-out-of-bombs-and-it-may-soon-struggle-to-make-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/pentagon\/2018\/05\/22\/the-us-is-running-out-of-bombs-and-it-may-soon-struggle-to-make-more\/","title":{"rendered":"The US is running out of bombs \u2014 and it may soon struggle to make more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

WASHINGTON \u2015 The Pentagon plans to invest more than $20 billion in munitions in its next budget<\/a>. But whether the industrial base will be there to support such massive buys in the future is up in the air \u2014 at a time when America is expending munitions<\/a> at increasingly intense rates. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The annual Industrial Capabilities report, put out by the Pentagon\u2019s Office of Manufacturing and Industrial Base Policy, has concluded that the industrial base of the munitions sector is particularly strained, something the report blames on the start-and-stop nature of munitions procurement over the last 20 years, as well as the lack of new designs being internally developed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some suppliers have dropped out entirely, leaving no option for replacing vital materials. Other key suppliers are foreign-owned, with no indigenous capability to produce vital parts and materials \u2015 setting up the risk that a conflict with China could rely on Chinese-made parts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

RELATED: America\u2019s industrial base is at risk, and the military may feel the consequences<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the military\u2019s desire to tinker with existing designs rather than create band-new weapons<\/a> has left the industrial base with a lack of design experience, which means \u201cdesign skills for critical components within the missile sector industrial base are at risk,\u201d the authors write.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All this is happening as the U.S. is expending munitions at a rapid rate. For instance<\/a>, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction concluded that 1,186 munitions were dropped in that country during the first quarter of 2018 \u2015 the highest number recorded for the first three months of the year since tracking began in 2013; that number is also more than two and a half times the amount dropped in the first quarter of 2017.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mackenzie Eaglen, a defense expert with the American Enterprise Institute, said figures in the report line up with worries from senior military leaders over the last two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis report puts a bunch of solid facts and figures, and real companies and impact, behind the anecdotal concerns of leadership,\u201d Eaglen said, who added that the overall facts show \u201cmunitions production is then at risk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\t