AILSA CHANG, HOST:
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is butting heads with Democratic Senator Mark Kelly of Arizona again, this time over Kelly's recent statements that the U.S. is depleting its weapon supply in this war with Iran. Here's Kelly on CBS' "Face The Nation."
(SOUNDBITE OF TV SHOW, "FACE THE NATION")
MARK KELLY: We've expended a lot of munitions, and that means the American people are less safe. Whether it's a conflict in the Western Pacific with China or somewhere else in the world, the munitions are depleted.
CHANG: The response from Hegseth was that Kelly, quote, "blabbed (ph) about a classified Pentagon briefing." This whole exchange does raise questions about the state of the Pentagon's weapons stockpile. And so we have called up someone to talk about just that. Barbara Starr, former CNN Pentagon correspondent, and current senior fellow at the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy. Welcome.
BARBARA STARR: Well, thank you for having me.
CHANG: First off, Barbara, I just want to address what Secretary Hegseth said about Senator Kelly. Was this classified information that Kelly disclosed, do you think?
STARR: I don't think you can make a strong case that it's classified to say we've expended weapons in this war. I mean, this is something, every single day, the Pentagon was talking about firing weapons against Iranian targets. What becomes classified is if the senator was to get into extreme detail about how much is left in the stockpile, specific munitions, how much they have of this or that. And I didn't see that he got into that kind of detail.
CHANG: Right. OK. Well, getting into a little more detail - but not from Senator Kelly - I saw an analysis last month from the Center for Strategic and International Studies that said that the military had used up quite a bit of its stockpile, and it listed various categories. I mean, how close are we actually to just running out of weapons at this point, after starting this war with Iran?
STARR: Well, the Pentagon's view is that we're not close, that we have plenty left. But a reality check here - the U.S. has relied a great deal on using its precision weapons stocks, and as those go lower, there has to be a plan in place, both the money, the funding and the production capability to replenish those stocks. And right now, the big concern is to make sure they replenish the Patriot missiles, the air defense capability. These are the things that have been used up. These are the things that our allies are using in the Gulf. Everybody needs to get more of this back into the stockpile.
CHANG: OK. So paint a picture for us. Can you just put in plain terms what kind of potential future conflicts is the U.S. potentially unprepared for, given the supply of the weapons that you have just named?
STARR: Well, I think that's the key question right now, is if the stockpiles are not topped off - which right now, they don't appear to be - can the U.S. simultaneously prosecute wars in Asia - that means China or North Korea - the Gulf against Iran, and in Europe against Russia? We think that's not very likely, but let's face it, in both Europe, where the U.S. is supporting Ukraine, and in the Middle East, they're already using up weapons. It's a key reason the stockpile is diminished.
CHANG: Well, are you hearing anything from your Pentagon sources about their concern over the U.S. weapons stockpile?
STARR: Well, you know, it's interesting. Even Pete Hegseth on Capitol Hill in the last few days said, it's got to get replenished, and it's going to take months. He claims there's a plan to do it, but they're going to need funding. I think one of the most interesting wrinkles here is we're seeing both the Army and the Navy say if they don't get more funding to replace what they are spending on this war, they're going to have to cut back training.
CHANG: Wow.
STARR: And that means the administration has to send a funding plan to Congress, and Congress has to act on it.
CHANG: Do you think Hegseth's estimate - that this could take months for the stockpile to replenish - is that a fair estimate? Do you have a sense?
STARR: Well, I think for some weapons, possibly. But for the so-called smart weapons - the very complex weapons that have precision fabrication, satellite-guided systems that the U.S. relies so much on right now - that's going to take billions of dollars. I don't know that anybody has a solid estimate.
CHANG: Yeah.
STARR: And it's going to be months, if not years. And by the time you replenish, the U.S. is going to be onto the next generation of those weapons. So this is going to be a problem that will ripple through the Pentagon for years to come.
CHANG: Barbara Starr, former CNN Pentagon correspondent and current senior fellow at the USC Annenberg Center on Communication Leadership and Policy. Thank you very much.
STARR: Thanks for having me. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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