Fischer Questions Hegseth, Caine on Munitions Stockpiles

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Deb Fischer (R-NE), a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, questioned U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Dan Caine on the importance of replenishing munitions expended in Operation Epic Fury and expanding domestic production capacity.

Click here to download video of Fischer's remarks

Fischer's exchange with Caine :

FISCHER: If we want to support Ukraine going forward, I think the best way to do that is to dramatically increase munitions production, and we need more interceptors. We have to be able to move forward.

Let me emphasize that this supplemental does that. This is what we're talking about here today. It's one of the things that we're talking about. As a member of the Armed Services Committee, one of my priorities for over five years now has been on munitions production. General Caine, what happens if Congress doesn't fund this $21 billion request for additional munitions?

CAINE: Well, ma'am, there's been a lot of work done by the department to partner with the private sector. I'll acknowledge some of the efforts that the private sector is doing to utilize their own capital to facilitate factories. If we don't, as a team, figure out how to properly fund the department, then we're not going to get the munitions, and there's going to be a lack of shared risk between the federal government and the private sector.

I think we're at a point in time in our history where we need to partner. We need to find an ability to share risk. We need to be better sellers and buyers on both sides in order to make sure that the young, all volunteer force has the weapons that they need before they are asked to go do something.

FISHER: You're saying we need to be prepared as a country?

CAINE: Yes, ma'am, and I hope, as I said in my opening statement, that we will find a way to make sure that we seize this moment in this time in history to ensure that we've got the right mix of munitions-high, low scale, autonomous.

FISCHER: What's your plan B if the supplemental doesn't pass?

CAINE: Ma'am, we will always figure things out. We will always have contingencies. We will always determine a way to create multiple simultaneous dilemmas for adversaries around the world in order to create time for us to do the work that the Congress and the department needs to do together.

FISCHER: As you've heard me say a number of times in our posture hearings on Armed Services and also in classified briefings, we don't have a lot of time, do we, sir?

CAINE: No, ma'am. That's why I said, if not now, then when, and if not us, then who. I truly believe we're at one of those moments in history where we have a choice to make, just given what I see on the next couple of ridge lines, and I encourage us to move forward.

Fischer's exchange with Hegseth :

FISCHER: Mr. Secretary, how would this request scale munitions production and be able to accelerate our delivery times?

HEGSETH: In the past, previous administrations would sort of send the same amount of dollars into trying to encourage companies to build another factory and add an additional shift. What this munitions request does is fulfills deals that our department has cut with these companies. First, multi-year procurement, where these companies that make SM-3s or Patriots or THAADs [Terminal High Altitude Area Defense] or Tomahawks...

FISCHER: A priority for our NDAA a couple years ago.

HEGSETH: Absolutely, and you have provided that authority, multi-year procurement, and now those companies are spending $4 billion, $5 billion, $3 billion on building their own new factories, that then produce 2x, 3x, or 4x the amount of munitions than they did in the past, and they paid for it.

So actually, in this budget, which is $21 billion, as you mentioned, it saves $18 billion over the FYDP on munitions because we're buying munitions at today's cost and not five or seven years from now when we will also get them.

FISCHER: I hate to interrupt, but we're running out of time. We also have the request includes $4.1 billion for our space-based capabilities, and that includes the AMTI and our space data network capabilities, and these really underpin the long-range kill chains and allow our warfighters to detect and also then to track the airborne threats. So, Mr. Secretary, what's the risk to the joint force if we delay these programs until FY28 or beyond?

HEGSETH: Senator, not being able to see, not being able to sense before an adversary is able to engage one of our capabilities, which means falling behind in the domain of space, which means falling behind at every other domain.

This hearing titled "A Review of the President's Supplemental Funding Request of June 24, 2026" was convened by the Senate Appropriations Committee.

###