Mackenzie Eaglen

“The U.S. military expended 1/4 of its entire THAAD interceptor inventory in last summer’s 12-day war.” Me & @ToddHarrisonDC September 25, 2025 nationalinterest.org/feature/the-us…

Actually, it’s decades worth

America's military magazine depth is too shallow. Stocks must be replenished quickly & at scale in order to position our armed forces to succeed in wars big and small, long or short. nytimes.com/2025/05/01/opi…

Given the age and small #s, more must be purchased while developing new operating concepts to maximize the combat power they generate. Congress and the White House must work swiftly to support industry and reopen the C-17 line. Before its unfortunate end in the Obama administration, this was America’s last remaining military wide-bodied cargo production line. Wars of attrition demand C-17s. In conflict, equipment wears out five to six times faster than in peacetime. As the “most flexible cargo aircraft" in the airlift force, restarting C-17 production as soon as possible is essential. Beijing will surely take note.

This moment demands a fundamental rethink of U.S. maritime strategy, the fleets that support it, and the industrial base that underwrites military power breakingdefense.com/2026/01/the-na…

America faces a pivotal moment in shaping its defense priorities. The newly-released Affording Defense, edited by @MEaglen, aims to dispel the pervasive myth that 🇺🇸cannot afford the defense its strategy demands. Read the chapters online 👇 aei.org/affording-defe…

With the most ambitious modernization plan in its history, the U.S. Air Force @usairforce has avoided the politically-pleasing but capacity-robbing approach of putting all its airpower "eggs in one [combat capability] basket." nationalsecurityjournal.org/the-u-s-air-fo…

I’m sensing a pattern ... Beijing builds six naval combatant ships for every 1.8 ships the U.S. builds. By day 8 in a war, our Chinese ship-sinking missile stocks are depleted. During the 12-Day War, the U.S. launched more than 150 THAAD interceptors—a full ¼ our total inventory. Operation Midnight Hammer utilized >half our entire B-2 stealth bomber fleet. While Russia produces 300,000 artillery shells per month, the US Army has feverishly ramped up and still produces only 40K 155s/month. The US Navy launched more Tomahawks in one day of opening strikes against the Houthis in Jan ’24 than it bought the previous year. There is a flood of private capital ready to build at scale, as well as traditional industry partners that have been ramping up surge capacity and investing in innovation in recent years. @wsj wsj.com/opinion/our-tr…

Rangers, robots, and reform: the next drone revolution is here. What started in the skies has moved to the ground.

You can’t shoot what you don’t have. In the “12-Day War,” America used 25% of its entire THAAD missile inventory and fired >80 SM-3s. Only one SM-3 variant is even in production, and replenishment timelines stretch for years. America’s missile stockpiles are shrinking faster than industry can replenish. The result is a widening missile gap that adversaries can see clearly. nationalinterest.org/feature/the-us…

‘Economic Defense Unit’: How the U.S. Military Wins in the ‘Gray Zone’ (by the great @MEaglen) for @NationalSecJour... nationalsecurityjournal.org/economic-defen…

@JoeRNews Amen

The Pentagon just stood up a “munitions war room” given the US armed forces’ shallow magazine depth across the portfolio of missiles, bombs, rockets, ammo, artillery & mines. The American defense industrial base revival — and expansion — is just getting started. Private capital is pouring in, nascent companies are forming, and brand new factories and facilities are opening to help rebuild the arsenal of democracy.

The US Army’s ammo chief recently visited the Lake City Army Ammunition Plant in Independence, Missouri. He asked the team, “When’s the last time we built anything new at Lake City?” The answer: December 26th, 1940. President Harry S. Truman’s library shows a photo of then-Senator Truman with his fedora & trench coat putting a shovel in the ground when the last new anything opened in Lake City. But that is changing, at last 👇 nationalsecurityjournal.org/americas-munit…

"If our adversaries believe that the United States cannot sustain a high-intensity campaign, they may try to win one." From @MEaglen: Winning Wars Requires Weapons-Grade Funding nationalreview.com/magazine/2025/…

The just-passed generational reconciliation bill (OBBBA) for the United States military will surely vanquish the Pentagon’s infamous “valley of death” where promising R&D projects can’t scale. What few saw coming and what must now be addressed is the “infrastructure capital gap.” 💰

Given the traditional rules of force planning (1 bomber in the skies means 1 in work-up to deploy and 1 in maintenance after deployment), 250 B-21 Raiders should be the absolute floor for Air Force acquisition plans. 400+ new B-21s would be ideal # 19fortyfive.com/2025/06/why-th…

Beyond the weapons shipment pause, @TaraCopp explains the bigger picture on the health of U.S. military munitions stocks and key areas of concern

Operation “Midnight Hammer” showcased a sad fact: America’s B-2 bomber fleet is large enough for a raid. Not a battle, and certainly not a war. 19fortyfive.com/2025/06/why-th…

Killer robots are here to stay. Should the U.S. military abandon large human-operated platforms -- like clunky tanks, short-legged fighter jets, and exposed ships?