Pete Hegseth clashes with CBS host over shortage claims of US weapon stockpiles

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth traded blows with CBS' Margaret Brennan on "Face the Nation" Sunday, claiming that the U.S. is not facing a shortage of weapon stockpiles despite testifying before Congress that it could take months or years to rebuild reserves of certain weaponry.

The back-and-forth began when Brennan asked whether Hegseth was in favor of allowing Ukraine to produce their own Patriot missile interceptors. Hegseth did not directly answer the question, replying that America’s stockpiles are "great" and "only getting stronger."

Brennan said there was a "a crisis with those stockpiles right now in private industry."

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"That is a manufactured story that the media wants to peddle," Hegseth responded, prompting Brennan to remind Hegseth that he testified before Congress that it could take "months and years" to rebuild military stockpiles depending on the specific weapon in question.

"You don't have to read back to me what I testified. I speculated some munitions take more time than others," Hegseth replied. "We've got lots of them. We're building more than ever before. The Biden administration gave away hundreds of billions to Ukraine. And so President Trump had to refill, and he has."

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An April report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) found that U.S. forces used large shares of several critical munitions during the air and missile campaign against Iran, including more than 850 Tomahawk cruise missiles and more than 1,000 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSMs). Patriot interceptor use was estimated between roughly 1,060 and 1,430 missiles — more than half of the U.S. prewar inventory.

Exact U.S. munitions stockpiles are classified, and the figures in the report are estimates derived from Pentagon budget documents, historical procurement data and reported battlefield usage.

Even before the Iran war, U.S. stockpiles of key precision munitions were considered insufficient for a large-scale conflict with a peer adversary such as China. The latest drawdowns have made that gap more acute. 

In a hearing with the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense last month, Hegseth said that "the munitions issue has been foolishly, and unhelpfully overstated."

"We have all the munitions needed to execute what we need to execute," he said. 

Fox News Digital's Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.