President Trump's war economy continues to gain steam as weapons production is kicked into high gear and stockpiling becomes a top priority for the Department of War.
The latest evidence: Lockheed Martin has won a DoW contract worth up to $35 billion to quadruple production of THAAD missile-defense interceptors, according to Bloomberg.
The seven-year agreement follows a January framework deal between Lockheed and DoW to boost interceptor output over the next few years. It also comes as the White House moves to mobilize the defense industrial base, with Trump invoking the Defense Production Act to reduce manufacturing bottlenecks.
On Wednesday afternoon, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told reporters after a meeting with Trump that the goal of increasing munitions production “is important because we have to replenish our stockpiles and make sure we are totally ready for whatever might emerge."
The urgency behind the upcoming replenishment cycle comes after four years of war in Ukraine and the recent U.S.-Iran war drained key weapons stockpiles.
Trump also met with defense-industry executives on Wednesday as the administration seeks to accelerate production of other key air-defense weapons.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told lawmakers in mid-May that because of Trump's "smart business deals” have sent an unmistakable demand signal to defense-industrial partners: build more, build faster, and prepare for sustained procurement.
Hegseth's recent comments about America's industrial base roaring back to life should come as no surprise to readers, as we've outlined:
DoW recently published a map of America's expanding defense industrial base, centered mostly in the South and Rust Belt.
Last week, Nancy Lazar, Piper Sandler's chief global economist and head of the firm's economics research team, told clients she was bullish on goods-producing jobs, including construction workers building out the next wave of data centers.
We would add that surging production of missiles, interceptors, drones, tanks, planes, and bombs could further accelerate that shift, moving the labor market away from two decades of low-productivity service-sector jobs and back toward higher-paying industrial work tied to national security, reshoring, and Trump's war economy.