By Mike Stone
WASHINGTON, June 10 (Reuters) – The Trump administration plans to meet executives from the biggest U.S. defense contractors at the White House as soon as next week to discuss accelerating production, as U.S. strikes on Iran and other recent military operations draw down supplies, sources said.
The meeting would mark the second White House gathering with chief executives of America’s largest defense contractors on ramping up weapons production. The March meeting included the CEOs and other top officials from BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, RTX Corporation, Boeing, Honeywell Aerospace and L3Harris Technologies, with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also in attendance.
The war with Iran as well as supplies sent to Ukraine in recent years has depleted U.S. weapons stockpiles.
The meeting comes as Pentagon negotiators continue pressing contractors to move much faster. At the center of those efforts are production deals struck earlier this year.
The agreements reached include a multiyear deal to triple PAC-3 production and quadruple THAAD interceptor production with Lockheed, as well as separate multiyear deals with RTX to boost production for the Tomahawk and AMRAAM air-to-air missiles. Those deals, announced as “framework agreements,” have yet to translate into contracts.
The White House, Lockheed Martin, RTX, Boeing and L3Harris did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; Editing by Mark Porter)
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