For decades, Washington has talked about the threat the Chinese Communist Party poses to the American people. Analysts and politicians have written countless white papers, held congressional hearings and delivered speeches warning that Beijing’s military modernization, economic coercion and technological ambitions pose an existential challenge to America’s military primacy. But despite all the talk, policymakers have failed to do what matters most: rebuilding our industrial capacity to produce the weapons systems needed to deter—and if necessary, defeat—Chinese aggression.
That is finally changing.
Under President Donald Trump, the War Department is implementing the kind of reforms that Republicans have promised for a generation but never delivered. Secretary Pete Hegseth and Deputy Secretary Steve Feinberg aren’t just reorganizing the Pentagon’s maps; they are also forging a true partnership between government and industry to rebuild munitions production on a scale approaching Cold War levels, increasing production of key systems like Tomahawk cruise missiles more than tenfold under new long-term contracts at the Pentagon.
This is the strategic imperative of our time. China has spent two decades building the world’s largest navy, modernizing its nuclear arsenal, and stockpiling precision munitions while we debated and procrastinated. Beijing understands that wars are won by countries that can produce weapons faster than their opponents can destroy them. We are in a race to rebuild the arsenal of freedom – and we have lost.
TRUMP REVISIONS US arms sales to benefit key allies and protect US weapons production
A look at the Tomahawk cruise missile, and how it could change the tide of the war in Ukraine. (US Navy/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Carlos M. Vazquez II/Handout via Reuters)
For years, the defense industry faced conflicting demands, lengthy negotiations and a procurement bureaucracy that made long-term planning virtually impossible. The result was predictable: companies could not justify large capital investments if they did not have confidence in future orders.
That all changes. The War Department understands what is at stake. They recently awarded five landmark contracts that will increase production of Tomahawk cruise missiles, advanced intermediate-range air-to-air missiles (AMRAAMs) and standard missiles, providing the industry with demand signals for up to seven years. That kind of certainty allows companies to invest billions in new production lines here in the United States, expand their workforces and strengthen domestic supply chains.
The War Department aims to eliminate red tape and provide the long-term contracts the industry needs to invest on a large scale. In turn, contractors are responding by committing to faster timelines, additional U.S. investment, and strengthened supply chains. The result: tens of billions of dollars in deals that will flood our arsenal with the precision munitions essential to our current conflict in Iran, but more importantly, to any future conflict in the Pacific.
This is important because China is watching. Beijing’s strategists know that America’s greatest advantage has always been our industrial power: our ability to defeat any opponent when the stakes are high enough. But they also know the advantage has faded. Our defense industrial base has consolidated critical components, moved them overseas, and operated under a just-in-time model that is incompatible with the demands of the war wave.
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Previous governments treated defense contractors as suppliers in a transactional relationship, putting pressure on costs while offering little long-term certainty. The industry responded rationally: consolidated, reduced capacity and optimized margins in peacetime. Meanwhile, China built 248 warships, while we built 100 and stockpiled missiles while debating takeover reform.
The threats we face require meaningful action. Venezuela, Ukraine, Iran – each conflict depletes our munitions supplies and exposes the fragility of global supply chains. But the main threat remains China. Every Tomahawk missile we don’t produce, every AMRAAM we can’t deliver, every delay in expanding production capacity is a gift to Beijing’s military planners.
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The arsenal of freedom is not a metaphor. It’s the factories in Texas that build F-35s, the production lines in Arizona that increase missile production, and the supply chains in America’s heartland that turn raw materials into weapons systems that keep the peace through strength. By rebuilding that arsenal, we can deter Chinese aggression, reassure our allies, and ensure that if conflict erupts, America has the industrial power to prevail.
The Trump administration understands this. Now it is being implemented. And that makes the difference.
CLICK HERE TO BY CHAD WOLF
