The Pentagon insists the U.S. military still has enough weapons to sustain global operations.

By World Israel News Staff

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said claims that the United States is dangerously low on critical munitions stockpiles are being greatly exaggerated, insisting during a House hearing Tuesday that the American military still has sufficient supplies to continue operations and defend the country.

“The munitions issue has been foolishly and unhelpfully overstated,” Hegseth said during the subcommittee hearing. “We have all the munitions needed to execute what we need to execute.”

Hegseth added that he takes “issue with the characterization that munitions are depleted in a public forum. That’s not true.”

The former Marine emphasized that military leaders are carefully managing the use of weapons and supplies during the ongoing conflict.

“Even in the conduct of the conflict, working with the chairman [Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine] and [Central Command chief] Adm. [Brad] Cooper, ensuring that any munitions we’re using, we know what we’re trading off of to preserve capabilities,” Hegseth said. “So we have maximum optionality across the globe.”

Hegseth’s remarks came after numerous media reports claimed that U.S. inventories of key weapons systems — including Army Tactical Missile Systems (ATACMS), Patriot air defense interceptors, and Tomahawk cruise missiles — have been strained following the outbreak of Operation Epic Fury.

Several defense companies have already announced plans to increase production in an effort to replenish supplies depleted during the conflict.

Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies Defense and Security Program, told Time magazine that manufacturing advanced weapons systems takes significant time.

“The Department of Defense has more money, really, than it can spend on munitions. The problem is time,” Cancian said. “The production rate will increase, but that takes three, four years before production meets demand.”

Cancian also warned that American defense companies will likely prioritize supplying the U.S. military before fulfilling international orders.

“The Gulf States want to replenish their air and missile defense inventories. The Ukrainians want Patriots. The Japanese want Tomahawks and there may be other countries that want to expand their inventories also,” Cancian said.

“And for the next couple of years, there just aren’t going to be enough missiles to go around.”

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The renaming is part of what Hegseth has called the “warrior ethos” campaign within the Pentagon.

By Matthew Xiao, The Washington Free Beacon

President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order that allows the Department of Defense to use the name “Department of War” and directs the defense secretary to propose making the name change permanent, reviving the name that the department used for more than 150 years before it was rebranded after World War II.

While Trump cannot officially rename the department without congressional approval, his order authorizes “the Secretary of Defense, the Department of Defense, and subordinate officials to use secondary titles such as ‘Secretary of War,’ ‘Department of War,’ and ‘Deputy Secretary of War’ in official correspondence, public communications, ceremonial contexts, and non-statutory documents within the executive branch,” according to a White House fact sheet.

The order also directs Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to propose executive and legislative actions to make the name change permanent.

“The name ‘Department of War’ conveys a stronger message of readiness and resolve compared to ‘Department of Defense,’ which emphasizes only defensive capabilities,” the fact sheet reads.

Republican lawmakers are moving to codify the name change, with Sens. Rick Scott (R., Fla.) and Mike Lee (R., Utah) leading the effort in the Senate and Rep. Greg Steube (R., Fla.) spearheading the House version, according to a joint press release by the three lawmakers.

The renaming is part of what Hegseth has called the “warrior ethos” campaign within the Pentagon.

The Trump administration has worked to showcase greater military resolve and readiness, dismantling what it calls the Biden administration’s “woke” initiatives, which officials say weakened morale and undermined the armed forces’ mission.

“The president said to me, I want you to restore the warrior ethos of our military, full stop,” Hegseth said at the Army War College in April, adding, “We are leaving wokeness and weakness behind. And refocusing on lethality, meritocracy, accountability, standards and readiness.”

The Department of War was established under George Washington in 1789 and retained the name until 1947, when then-president Harry Truman merged the War and Navy Departments with the newly formed Air Force into a single body called the National Military Establishment.

Two years later, it was renamed the Department of Defense.

Trump first floated the renaming last month, saying that the United States “had an unbelievable history of victory when it was Department of War” and that “we want defense, but we want offense, too.”

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