{"id":586,"date":"2026-08-06T22:49:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T22:49:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=586"},"modified":"2026-08-06T22:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T22:49:12","slug":"weaponizing-the-missile-shortage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=586","title":{"rendered":"Weaponizing the Missile Shortage"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

Chess players have a word for what happens when a game is too far gone, and every choice is actually no choice at all, each leading painfully to the same outcome: losing. That word is zugzwang<\/em>, a mash-up of two German words\u2013\u2013zug<\/em> meaning \u201cmove,\u201d zwang<\/em> meaning \u201ccompulsion,\u201d a favorite of Freud, who wrote often about various kinds of zwang<\/em>\u2013\u2013that came together sometime in the 19th century to mean something like a \u201cforced move.\u201d After chess players and psychoanalysts, military experts have since borrowed the idea to describe scenarios where one power has no good strategic options left and is forced to make concessions. The Iran war, which has been called \u201cunwinnable\u201d by everyone from former Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to Tucker Carlson, has been fertile ground for the analogy.<\/p>\n

Read more Dorothy Day: Saint Radical<\/a><\/p>\n

More from Zachary Groz<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

That had been clear enough amid months of rolling oil shocks and protracted haggling over how much Iran should expect to make in \u201cuser fees\u201d charged to commercial ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz. But the picture came into sharper focus this week, as military sources spilled to Reuters that the U.S. has now wasted \u201cvirtually all\u201d of its long-range and defensive missile stockpile, launching strikes and downing Iranian drone attacks on regional bases and allies. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth responded on social media, saying, \u201cWe don\u2019t hate the Fake News media enough,\u201d after CNN picked up the story. The week hasn\u2019t much improved since then for the defense secretary. Yesterday, the Pentagon held what NBC News described as a \u201ccrisis meeting\u201d about the issue, and this morning The Washington Post<\/em> followed up with a scoop about President Trump lacing into Hegseth last Friday at a Camp David meeting over the missile shortage, even while Trump derided the claims of a shortage as fake news and added that \u201cleakers\u201d of the information will be \u201chunted down.\u201d Across Washington, it seems, there\u2019s plenty of zugzwang<\/em> to go around.<\/p>\n

Congress, though, may be facing the worst of it. Last month, Democratic senators nixed a vote on the Trump administration\u2019s $1.15 trillion military spending request, which, combined with a separate $350 billion package proposed by the White House through reconciliation, would eclipse last year\u2019s defense budget to become the largest in the country\u2019s history, while opening up contracting rules to fast-track acquisitions, and potentially quadrupling missile production. Talk of a shortage may make that opposition impossible to sustain, forcing lawmakers to sign a blank check for an aggressive war they never authorized and for future campaigns they may have no say in, all to stave off an actual crisis.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe administration is manufacturing false urgency around the missile shortage to build political will for more defense spending, which is what the president wanted long before he started this war,\u201d said Julia Gledhill, a research analyst for the National Security Reform Program at the Stimson Center. \u201cIt\u2019s all part and parcel of a broader effort to lean increasingly on rapid acquisition pathways, which have fewer requirements around cost and pricing data, around competition, and therefore are less accountable, and hinder congressional oversight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more El-Sayed\u2019s Challenge: Overcoming \u2018Otherness\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

In testimony to the House Oversight Committee earlier this summer, Gledhill highlighted some of the structural problems in defense contracting that may allow the administration to run wild with discretionary spending on weapons, should it be granted 50 percent more budget to do so. The main culprit is an exception to ordinary contracting rules known as \u201cOther Transaction Authority,\u201d or an OTA. It was designed as a way for the federal government to bypass standard competition and cost comparison regulations and quickly develop and buy new technology. In recent years, the Pentagon has leaned on OTAs more and more, multiplying its expenditure through the contracting vehicle tenfold between 2016 and 2024, according to Gledhill, up to $18 billion in 2024.<\/p>\n

The Trump administration has signaled it intends to take OTA spending to new heights. Last year, the president issued an executive order outlining the administration\u2019s \u201cgeneral preference\u201d for OTAs and shelled out $3.2 billion through them just for space-based missile interceptors to be developed under the Golden Dome for America project, the Pentagon\u2019s planned air defense system modeled after Israel\u2019s Iron Dome. And this week, the Defense Department announced the signing of new multibillion-dollar nonbinding \u201cframework agreements\u201d with defense contracting heavyweights Northrop Grumman and Lockheed Martin to produce more missile interceptors.<\/p>\n

The \u201cpinky promise\u201d deals are just paper until Congress appropriates funds for them, says Gledhill, but they add to the administration\u2019s pressure campaign to get the funding done to \u201ctriple or quadruple production.\u201d Having refused over and over to limit the administration\u2019s war or force it to abide by its own cease-fires, Congress may have no good moves left between dangerously depleted stockpiles and carte blanche for a war with no endgame.<\/p>\n

Read more Can DSA\u2019s Francesca Hong Win in Cheese Country?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\n
\n
\n<\/article>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reporting on the depletion of munitions due to the Iran war could be a pretext to massively expand the military budget and accelerate contracting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":585,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[287],"class_list":["post-586","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tap","tag-tagged-budget-budget-reconciliation-congress-defense-department-donald-trump-federal-contracting-foreign-policy-iran-military-missiles-on-t"],"yoast_head":"\nWeaponizing the Missile Shortage - Frontier Housing Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=586\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Weaponizing the Missile Shortage - Frontier Housing Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Reporting on the depletion of munitions due to the Iran war could be a pretext to massively expand the military budget and accelerate contracting.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=586\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Frontier Housing Report\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-08-06T22:49:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=586#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=586\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13a8c63a4bd3b73600b541c1532fc247\"},\"headline\":\"Weaponizing the Missile Shortage\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-06T22:49:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=586\"},\"wordCount\":829,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=586#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/a89e32447cebc011aa372a421e095d37.webp\",\"keywords\":[\"Tagged: Budget,\u00a0budget reconciliation,\u00a0Congress,\u00a0Defense Department,\u00a0Donald Trump,\u00a0federal contracting,\u00a0foreign policy,\u00a0Iran,\u00a0military,\u00a0missiles,\u00a0ON TAP,\u00a0Pete Hegseth,\u00a0Politics,\u00a0weaponry\"],\"articleSection\":[\"TAP\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=586#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=586\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=586\",\"name\":\"Weaponizing the Missile Shortage - Frontier Housing Report\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=586#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=586#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/a89e32447cebc011aa372a421e095d37.webp\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-08-06T22:49:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13a8c63a4bd3b73600b541c1532fc247\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=586#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=586\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=586#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/a89e32447cebc011aa372a421e095d37.webp\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/08\\\/a89e32447cebc011aa372a421e095d37.webp\",\"width\":2248,\"height\":1500},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?p=586#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Weaponizing the Missile Shortage\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Frontier Housing Report\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/13a8c63a4bd3b73600b541c1532fc247\",\"name\":\"admin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"admin\"},\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/frontierhousingreport.com\\\/?author=1\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Weaponizing the Missile Shortage - Frontier Housing Report","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=586","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Weaponizing the Missile Shortage - Frontier Housing Report","og_description":"Reporting on the depletion of munitions due to the Iran war could be a pretext to massively expand the military budget and accelerate contracting.","og_url":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=586","og_site_name":"Frontier Housing Report","article_published_time":"2026-08-06T22:49:12+00:00","author":"admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"admin","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=586#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=586"},"author":{"name":"admin","@id":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/#\/schema\/person\/13a8c63a4bd3b73600b541c1532fc247"},"headline":"Weaponizing the Missile Shortage","datePublished":"2026-08-06T22:49:12+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=586"},"wordCount":829,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=586#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/a89e32447cebc011aa372a421e095d37.webp","keywords":["Tagged: Budget,\u00a0budget reconciliation,\u00a0Congress,\u00a0Defense Department,\u00a0Donald Trump,\u00a0federal contracting,\u00a0foreign policy,\u00a0Iran,\u00a0military,\u00a0missiles,\u00a0ON TAP,\u00a0Pete Hegseth,\u00a0Politics,\u00a0weaponry"],"articleSection":["TAP"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=586#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=586","url":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=586","name":"Weaponizing the Missile Shortage - Frontier Housing Report","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=586#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=586#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/a89e32447cebc011aa372a421e095d37.webp","datePublished":"2026-08-06T22:49:12+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/#\/schema\/person\/13a8c63a4bd3b73600b541c1532fc247"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=586#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=586"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=586#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/a89e32447cebc011aa372a421e095d37.webp","contentUrl":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/a89e32447cebc011aa372a421e095d37.webp","width":2248,"height":1500},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?p=586#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Weaponizing the Missile Shortage"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/","name":"Frontier Housing Report","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/#\/schema\/person\/13a8c63a4bd3b73600b541c1532fc247","name":"admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/50b1ad2e498f523425ee0a8cc5180a210646db1622662a3d56cc405d3e0c346a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"admin"},"sameAs":["http:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com"],"url":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/?author=1"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=586"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/586\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=586"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=586"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/frontierhousingreport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=586"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}