CARLISLE, Pennsylvania, July 15 - President Donald Trump is expected to urge senior leaders of the defense industry on Wednesday to speed up weapons production and expand manufacturing capacity, citing strains on U.S. stockpiles from wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and bottlenecks in the industrial base.
Trump will join a roundtable discussion that concludes a two-day Defense and Innovation Summit organized by Republican Senator Dave McCormick at the U.S. Army War College. The gathering brings together senior military officers, defense contractors, investors and technology executives to focus on strengthening the domestic defense industrial base and accelerating delivery timelines for advanced weapons systems.
The president's appearance highlights the administration's heightened attention to defense production as prolonged conflicts have consumed significant quantities of missiles, interceptors and other munitions. Those operations, together with deliveries to allied countries, have exposed limits in the U.S. military supply chain and manufacturing capacity, officials say.
Organizers said Trump is expected to announce several Pennsylvania-based defense investment initiatives at the event. The summit has included senior Pentagon officials and industry representatives urging faster build rates and innovation to meet evolving battlefield demands.
Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman General Dan Caine pressed defense firms on Tuesday to increase the pace of production and accelerate innovation, telling the summit audience that the military requires its industrial partners to move more quickly as warfare changes. "What I need you to know, and I know this is simple for me to say, but hard to do, is to go faster. Please go faster. Think bolder," Caine said.
Production push as part of a broader industrial strategy
Expanding defense manufacturing has been cast by the administration as one component of a broader economic strategy aimed at revitalizing U.S. industrial capacity. The Pentagon is increasingly framed as a catalyst for factory investment, advanced manufacturing techniques and the strengthening of domestic supply chains.
In late June, the president met with munitions manufacturers at the White House to press the industry for increased speed. The United States has both supplied substantial quantities of weapons to allied nations and used ordnance in its own operations, creating concerns about inventories of crucial air-defense and precision-guided munitions and adding pressure on contractors to raise output.
Officials at the summit described sharply rising demand for rocket motors, which power missiles and other weapons, as prompting new approaches to supply chain and production challenges. That demand has drawn new entrants into the defense sector, with Silicon Valley-style startups competing against long-standing defense companies amid a premium on production speed, greater volumes and lower unit costs.
Legacy solid rocket motor manufacturers Northrop Grumman and L3Harris indicated they are intensifying research and development efforts to incorporate technologies such as 3D printing and novel mixing techniques to accelerate production and improve throughput.
Michael Duffey, the Pentagon official who oversees purchasing, told the summit that the department is relying on long-term procurement contracts to give defense companies the confidence to invest billions of dollars in expanded factory capacity. Duffey cited roughly $20 billion in private investment tied to plans to increase production of Patriot missiles and other in-demand weapons.
"The global environment now demands that we produce at this scale, at this speed, at this volume," Duffey said.