Pentagon pushes industry to cut missile costs, shorten production times

WASHINGTON, United States — WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department is asking defense contractors for a new model that would lower missile production costs and shorten manufacturing timelines, the Wall Street Journal reported. Under the plan, the Army is offering contracts that require companies to design weapons from scratch, with the goal of cutting production years and saving hundreds of millions of dollars. The Army's "Containerized Low-Cost Missile Program" is intended to build a class of container-launched, vehicle-portable missiles, according to the report. The Pentagon has set a ceiling of $500,000 per missile, while a separate Army air-defense initiative targets a unit cost of no more than $250,000. By comparison, Lockheed Martin's Patriot interceptors cost roughly $4 million each and take about two years to build. A separate U.S. Air Force project is planning to purchase tens of thousands of low-cost missiles in the coming years. Military officials told the Journal that the new efforts are not meant to replace the advanced missiles produced for decades by companies such as Lockheed Martin and RTX, but to add options by setting up new production lines for the Army.