President Trump has just invoked the Defense Production Act to accelerate the production of critical munitions.

That is a major development.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the President signed a June 11 memo delegating authority to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth to pursue voluntary agreements with private industry to strengthen the defense industrial base. The memo cited “limited production capacity, fragile supply chains, long-lead dependencies, and related production bottlenecks.”

The immediate concern is clear. The United States has used a very large quantity of missiles and interceptors since the war with Iran began on February 28. The Journal reported that more than 1,000 Tomahawk missiles have been fired, along with 1,500 to 2,000 air-defense missiles, including THAAD, Patriot, and Standard Missile interceptors.

Replacing those stockpiles will not be easy. It could take years.

This is exactly the kind of development Macro Watch has been examining in its new video series: The Defense Spending Boom Has Begun.

For decades, the US defense industrial base was shaped by the assumption that large-scale industrial warfare was unlikely. Production lines were consolidated. Supply chains became fragile. Inventories were allowed to shrink. Precision weapons became extremely sophisticated, but also expensive, slow to produce, and dependent on specialized components.

Now that era is over.

The wars in Ukraine and Iran, the growing risk of conflict over Taiwan, and the rapid rise of drone warfare have exposed a major weakness in US military preparedness: America does not only need better weapons. It needs the industrial capacity to produce them at scale.

That is why the Defense Production Act matters. This is not just another procurement decision. It is a sign that the US government is beginning to treat munitions production as a national industrial priority.

The shift is already visible. The Pentagon has been moving toward longer-term agreements with defense contractors to expand production of Patriot, THAAD, Tomahawk, AMRAAM, Standard Missiles, and other critical weapons. Lockheed Martin, RTX, and other defense companies are being pushed to invest in new production capacity. The government is also encouraging partnerships between traditional defense contractors, new defense technology firms, and commercial manufacturers.

One example cited by the Journal is the possibility of General Motors helping Lockheed Martin manufacture parts needed for munitions production. That would have seemed unusual in the post-Cold War era. It makes much more sense in the new era now taking shape.

The implications are enormous.

Defense spending is likely to rise. Procurement spending is likely to rise. Government support for the defense industrial base is likely to expand. Traditional defense contractors are likely to receive large new orders. At the same time, new defense companies — the so-called neoprimes — are likely to play a growing role as the Pentagon looks for faster, cheaper, more scalable technologies.

This is the central theme of the new Macro Watch series.

The Defense Spending Boom Has Begun explains why US defense spending is entering a new phase, which companies are likely to benefit, and how the rise of AI, drones, autonomous systems, space-based infrastructure, and munitions shortages is transforming the defense industry.

This is not only a military story. It is also an economic story, an industrial policy story, a stock market story, and a geopolitical story.

The United States is beginning to rearm. The defense industrial base is being rebuilt. And the companies that can help solve the production bottleneck are likely to become increasingly important in the years ahead.

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