America buys 100 Tomahawk missiles a year and once fired 850 in a day
The lesson from Ukraine and Iran is that the ability to build replacements fast matters more than the stockpile.
The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe · 502: Chris Power—The Other Hadrian's WallChris Power, a defense-manufacturing founder, recalls the United States buying about 100 Tomahawk missiles a year, and says 850 were fired in one day in Iran. Tomahawks are long-range cruise missiles fired from ships and submarines.
The gap between buying and firing illustrates his point that the ability to keep building matters more than the stockpile on hand. In his account, America shipped three years' worth of missile inventory to support Ukraine, and it was used up in six weeks.
When the Pentagon went back to industry asking for more, the answer, he says, was no. Refilling the missile supply alone, he says, will require $200 billion to $300 billion in capital and matching workforce training in the next five years.
He argues, in his words, "factory capacity is the deterrent."
Questions people ask
Why can't missile production surge quickly?
Missiles need specialized rocket motors, guidance electronics, and certified suppliers, plus skilled workers for assembly and inspection. Those supply chains and workers take years to expand, so production cannot jump from 100 a year to hundreds overnight.
What does deterrent mean here?
Deterrence means discouraging an adversary from attacking by convincing them the attack will fail or cost too much. Power's point is that a deep ability to manufacture replacements can deter more than a fixed number of weapons in storage.