Hegseth Clashes With CBS Over U.S. Weapons Shortages After Iran Fighting

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth had a heated exchange on CBS’s “Face the Nation” with host Margaret Brennan over claims that U.S. weapons stocks have been depleted by recent fighting against Iran and heavy aid to Ukraine. The interview came weeks after Hegseth testified before a House defense subcommittee, and after an April CSIS report warned that U.S. precision munitions had been used at an alarming rate.

Brennan asked whether he supported letting Ukraine produce its own interceptors for Patriot air defenses. Hegseth avoided the question and said U.S. stockpiles were “great” and “only getting stronger.” Brennan pushed back, saying, “There is a real crisis with these munitions stocks right now in the private industry.” Hegseth accused the media of inventing the issue, saying, “This is a manufactured tour that the media wants to pump up.”

Brennan then cited his sworn congressional testimony, in which he said restoring some missile and ammunition inventories could take “months and years.” Hegseth replied, “You don’t need to read back to me what I testified. I figured some munitions take longer than others. We have plenty of it. We are building more than ever. Biden’s administration gave hundreds of billions to Ukraine, so President Trump had to refill the stockpiles, and that is what he did.”

He had also told lawmakers last month that the ammunition issue had been “stupidly and unhelpfully inflated” and that the military had all the munitions it needed. The article says CSIS estimated that during the air campaign and missile attacks against Iran, the U.S. fired more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles, more than 1,000 combined missiles, and between 1,060 and 1,430 Patriot interceptors, more than half of America’s prewar stockpile. The report said exact stockpile figures are classified, but experts had already considered precision-munition inventories insufficient for a major war, including a potential conflict with China over Taiwan.