Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has quite a bit going on right now, and none of it is good.
He just added another problem to the stack that is quickly growing on his desk.
A defense expert just spoke up, stating that if the United States were forced into a war with China, we would likely run out of key missiles within a week.
When the war with Ukraine and Russia started, then-President Joe Biden was tapping into our defense stockpiles to feed Volodymyr Zelensky the munitions his nation needed.
This has now been going on for years, and usage has far outpaced supply at this point. And we have seen several stalls in supplying Ukraine that have raised concerns about our own ability to defend ourselves if a war were to break out.
A recent report in the Guardian claimed that our Patriot missile interceptor supply was only about 25% of what it needs to be, an assertion the Pentagon quickly denied.
Mark Cancian, a retired Marine Corps colonel and current senior adviser with the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, stated in interviews that the DoD has invested in increasing production rates, so these areas are clearly “stressed.”
Defense analyst Seth Jones believes that the situation is far more dire than anyone is letting on, recently releasing a new book on the subject, The American Edge.
He believes that if a war broke out with the Chinese over Taiwan, "after roughly a week or so of conflict," the United States would burn through most of, if not all, of its key long-range missiles.
Jones stated, "When you look at the numbers right now of those long-range munitions, we still right now would run out after roughly a week or so of conflict over Taiwan. That’s just not enough to sustain a protracted war."
His assessment raises concerns because, if you recall, the United States was going to start supplying Ukraine with long-range missiles, but then Trump balked. The president offered up several reasons as to why Ukraine could not get the weapons, but all this did was create whispers and concerns that our stockpiles are running very low.
This is just another problem for Hegseth to deal with, and he already has quite a bit on his plate.
The National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) is about to go up for a vote in Congress, and at the same time, Democrats are pushing to have Hegseth removed from his post, a scenario that could complicate support for the NDAA.
In addition to Democrat senators and congressmen individually pushing for his removal, the New Democrat Coalition is attacking him, also calling for Hegseth’s resignation. New Democrat Chair Brad Schneider (D-IL) and National Security Working Group Chair Gil Cisneros (D-CA) stated, “He is a disgrace to the office he holds and should resign immediately before his actions cost American lives.”
To this point, Trump has stood behind Hegseth, but the more questions that are asked of Trump about the man he chose to lead the Pentagon, the more agitated he gets. If the NDAA gets held up because of him (so far, Democrats have not hinted that may be the case), Trump could see him as a liability and cut ties. I think most of this picture will all play out by the end of this week, so stay tuned for updates.
