Army Secretary Dan Driscoll announced the initiative at a military testing range in Michigan, telling reporters that this effort would cut down months of red tape that military contractors must go through before launching new technology.
“That is not sufficient,” he said.
Before acquiring weapons, the military requires multiple rounds of rigorous testing to ensure that the weapons are battle-ready. That can result in potential producers facing long wait times in order to demonstrate proof of concept.To shorten that timeframe, the Army launched an online portal that allows munitions manufacturers to request access to a range. An Army “concierge” then helps them confirm availability and book a time. Driscoll said this process ensures that these companies, which do not need to have existing contracts but might one day become vendors to the government, will have access to a test range within 30 days of requesting it.
There is also an overseas site: Covenant Industries was the first to use the new scheduling system and tested its Anthem missile at the Multidomain Training Area in Morocco on Thursday. Executive Abby Denburg told reporters that the company would begin delivering “production-ready assets for our manufacturing line” at the start of 2027.
“By bringing in more facilities, you don't have to schedule something and wait six months until you get an opening,” Mark Cancian, a senior adviser with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), tells TIME. He says that this effort is a “natural step” toward addressing the production pipeline bottleneck.
Trump has repeatedly denied that there are munitions shortages, and he threatened jail time for officials who share information about the military’s reserves.
But CNN reported Wednesday that the U.S. had used up close to 80% of its interceptors for the THAAD anti-ballistic missile defense system, which cost over $15 million each, and approximately 50% of its Patriot interceptors, which cost around $4 million each.
When questioned about it on Friday, Driscoll said simply: “We have a larger arsenal than any nation in the history of the world, and we will have an even larger arsenal with new and different and layered defenses.”
Stacie Pettyjohn, a senior fellow and director of the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), tells TIME that the DoD is more concerned with testing new technology than replenishing existing items.
Speeding up weapons testing is only part of the solution
Cancian says the new test range scheduling system is likely an attempt to address two issues.“One is the desire to expand munitions production—particularly to bring on new kinds of munitions—and the second is Hegseth's push to accelerate the acquisition process,” Cancian says. “This is one way you can do it: by making more test facilities available, and therefore speed up the testing.”
“If you look at what Ukraine has done so incredibly well, it’s this innovation through necessity, and it’s innovation at the speed that is near or close to matching the commercial sector,” Driscoll said. “So what we, the Army, are trying to do is break down every single barrier that we have put up over the last 20 or 30 years.”
Major aerospace players such as Lockheed Martin and Boeing, as well as arms-makers like General Dynamics, have long been the country’s go-to for defense contracts. But Hegseth’s DoD has more recently strived to increase production by incentivizing smaller companies and startups to build cheap-yet-effective weapons.
Such efforts have already had an impact on the market, with venture-backed defense technology startups increasingly winning large contracts with the military. Many of the newcomers are software-centric and fast-moving, which helps distinguish them from traditional defense contractors.
But Pettyjohn says that the new initiative will only go so far when it comes to improving the nation’s munitions pipeline. Other areas of the pipeline remain bottlenecked, she explains. For example, she says that the military also needs to “cut down the timelines for new suppliers to get certified.” The process can take up to two years, involving registration, facility certification, cybersecurity compliance, and other critical steps to qualify for defense contracts.
The DoD’s current standards “emphasize safety and performance above all else,” she says, explaining that it's critical amid periods of growth to ensure standards are not being lowered just “so that weapons can be produced more quickly.”
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