Trump says defense giants will quadruple production of ‘Exquisite Class’ weapons after White House meeting

President Donald Trump said Friday that during a meeting with defense executives they had agreed to increase production of what he called “exquisite class” weapons by four times as his administration looks to accelerate weapons production while military operations against Iran continue.

“Expansion began three months prior to the meeting, and Plants and Production of many of these Weapons are already under way,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after the meeting. 

“We have a virtually unlimited supply of Medium and Upper Medium Grade Munitions, which we are using, as an example, in Iran, and recently used in Venezuela. Regardless, however, we have also increased Orders at these levels.”

Trump said the meeting concluded with executives agreeing to come back to the White House in two months. 

The White House emphasized the session was scheduled weeks ago and was not convened in response to immediate battlefield shortages. Officials described the meeting as part of a broader effort to strengthen the U.S. defense industrial base and speed production of American-made weapons.

Companies in attendance Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX Corporation, Boeing, Honeywell, BAE Systems and L3Harris Technologies. 

The meeting comes as U.S. forces remain engaged in Operation Epic Fury, a campaign targeting Iranian military assets following coordinated U.S.-Israeli strikes. Administration officials have maintained that U.S. readiness remains strong, even as the pace of missile defense operations has drawn scrutiny on Capitol Hill.

During the 2025 12-day Iran conflict, U.S. forces fired more than 150 Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) interceptors — roughly a quarter of the global inventory — to shield Israel and U.S. assets from Iranian missile attacks, according to defense assessments. Patriot PAC-3 MSE missiles are currently produced at a rate of roughly 600 to 650 annually, with replenishment timelines measured in months or years rather than weeks.

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U.S. and Israeli officials previously estimated that Iran had a large ballistic missile arsenal — roughly 2,000 to 3,000 missiles of various types at the outset of the conflict. Central Command chief Adm. Brad Cooper said Thursday Iran’s missile attacks have decreased 90% since the start of the conflict.

In this U.S. Navy handout, the USS Thomas Hudner fires a Tomahawk land attack missile in support of Operation Epic Fury on March 1, 2026, at sea. (U.S. Navy/via Getty Images)

U.S. Central Command released footage showing strikes on Iranian mobile missile launchers. (@CENTCOM via X)

Defense planners have described missile defense inventories as part of a broader strategic balancing act. The same high-end systems used to protect U.S. bases and partners in the Middle East are also supplied to Ukraine and positioned in the Indo-Pacific, creating what some analysts characterize as a “zero-sum” competition for inventory across theaters.

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Lawmakers emerging from recent classified briefings have raised questions about sustainability if operations expand. 

Sen. Mark Kelly, D-Ariz., warned the campaign could become a “math problem,” balancing incoming missile volumes against finite interceptor supplies and production capacity. 

Other members, including Republicans briefed on the operation, have said officials assured Congress U.S. forces remain in strong shape.

Current and former defense officials have drawn a distinction between offensive strike weapons — which can often be surged from prepositioned stocks — and defensive interceptors such as Patriot and THAAD systems, which require longer production timelines and cannot be rapidly manufactured at scale.

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