The Iran war has laid bare decades-old problems in how the Pentagon buys and builds weapons. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is pushing a $1.5 trillion budget, the largest military funding proposal in modern U.S. history, while demanding the Defense Department adopt an "85 percent solution" on weapon acquisition. Patriot interceptor missiles take 36 months and $4 million each to build—yet the military has already fired more than 1,200 of them against $35,000 Shahed drones Iran cranks out at 200 per month.

The conflict has resurrected criticisms former Defense Secretary Robert Gates made almost two decades ago: the Pentagon is a "finicky customer that buys in small batches and never achieves economies of scale," said Mackenzie Eaglen of the American Enterprise Institute. Even with expanded multiyear contracts aimed at tripling or quadrupling munitions production, experts argue money alone won't fix a culture that invests in expensive, slow-to-build systems.

Despite new focus on commercial suppliers and stripped bureaucracy, the mismatch between legacy platforms—F-35s, Tomahawks, Patriots—and rapid drone warfare persists. Gates warned that cultural change must come from the top, but past defense secretaries have promised reform and seen little follow-through.