Pentagon strikes deal for 10,000 containerized missiles as Iran war eats into stocks

The Pentagon announced Wednesday that it inked agreements with several arms firms to acquire 10,000 low-cost containerized missiles, as the war against Iran badly eats into existing missile stocks.

The agreements with Anduril, CoAspire, Leidos, and Zone 5 launch what the Defense Department is calling "the Low‑Cost Containerized Missles (LCCM) program." A separate parallel agreement with Castelion will see the Pentagon acquire at least 500 low-cost Blackbeard hypersonic missiles per year.

The two-year Castelion deal includes an option for the contract to be renewed for up to five years, and the Pentagon said in a statement that it is "actively seeking authority and funding" to purchase thousands more hypersonics from the company "to further encourage Castelion’s self-funded facility expansion."

To help get the program off the ground, the Defense Department said it will procure test missiles from Anduril, CoAspire, Leidos and Zone 5 beginning in June to lay "the groundwork for the assessment phase of the program."

“We will deliver affordable mass for our warfighters at unprecedented speed,” said Under Secretary of War for Research and Engineering Emil Michael.

“In concert with establishing a clear demand signal, these Framework Agreements commit American industry to on-time, on-cost delivery and investment in R&D and facilities. This commercial style of partnership is fully aligned with Secretary Hegseth’s Acquisition Transformation Strategy," he added.

The announcement comes as the Trump administration seeks to refill critical munitions that have been heavily used during the US-Israeli war against Iran, which has been stalled in a ceasefire amid deadlocked negotiations.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) think tank released a report last month in which it estimated that it will take up to four years to replenish missile stocks to pre-war levels due to long production times and competition from other nations.

That is on top of the fact that pre-war inventories were already low when the war began.