President Donald Trump will meet the nation’s top defence primes Wednesday, pressing them to clear a mounting weapons backlog that has swelled to $1.36 trillion through 2025. The meeting follows Trump’s criticism that firms have favoured dividends and buybacks over expanding missile output after the Iran war depleted stockpiles. Participants include Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Raytheon, L3Harris and the UK’s BAE Systems, and to secure future readiness.

The primes have launched multimillion‑dollar expansion projects – Lockheed Martin broke ground on a new Alabama plant, while Northrop, Raytheon and L3Harris pledge billions to widen capacity. Yet regulators, erratic funding and chronic shortages of rare‑earths, explosives and cleared labour cripple the supply chain. PwC data shows the five largest primes hold a 24 % larger backlog than a year earlier, and longer lead times.

To inject speed, the Pentagon has issued seven‑year framework agreements and opened contracts to non‑traditional firms such as Anduril, Co‑Aspire, Leidos and Zone 5, targeting 10,000 low‑cost cruise missiles from 2027. Industry leaders warn that without deeper procurement reform, even these agile entrants will hit the same material bottlenecks, risking a shift of foreign buyers toward alternative suppliers for U.S. defense planners.